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A Pakistani national with ties to the Iranian government has been accused of seeking to carry out a murder-for-hire plot targeting US government officials, according to the Department of Justice.
Asif Raza Merchant, who is now in federal custody, traveled to the US to hire hit men, who were undercover officers, in order to carry out assassinations in August or September this year, according to an indictment unsealed in New York on Tuesday.
The investigation does not appear to be related to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month. White House and federal law enforcement officials do not believe the 20-year-old gunman who fired at the former president has any connection to the murder-for-hire scheme detailed in the indictment.
FBI officials reportedly believe Trump was among Merchant’s potential targets, according to CNN, which first reported the indictment.
“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” according to a statement from Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security,” he added.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday that apparent retalitatory threats from Iran are “a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority.”
In April, after traveling to Iran, Merchant arrived in the US from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could help carry out the attacks, according to the indictment.
That contact was coordinating with law enforcement as a confidential source.
The following month, during a meeting with the source, Merchant made a “finger gun” motion while giving instructions to meet with potential hit men, and detailed a scheme that involved stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home, planning protests, and then killing a “politician or government official,” according to prosecutors.
Merchant said that the killings would take place while he was out of the country, and that he would use “code words” to communicate instructions, according to the indictment.
The source was told to run a “legitimate clothing business” to serve as a front that could launder money for the operation, with “tee-shirt” meaning “protest”; “flannel shirt” meaning “stealing”; and “fleece jacket” meaning “commit the act of the game,” the indictment alleges.
“Denim jacket” meant “sending money,” and Merchant began arranging plans to send $5,000 to pay hit men — who were, in fact, undercover law enforcement officers, according to prosecutors.
In June, Merchant said he needed the “hit men” to steal documents, stage protests at political rallies, and then kill a “political person,” according to prosecutors.
They were to receive instructions for the assassination within the last week of August or the first week of September, after Merchant fled the country, the indictment says.
Merchant was arrested on July 12 as he was preparing to leave the US. Law enforcement agents found a handwritten note with code words with him, according to the indictment.
FBI director Christopher Wray said the alleged plot is “straight out of the Iranian playbook.”
“A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any US citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI,” he said in a statement.
”The targeting of former and current officials by foreign actors is an affront to our sovereignty and our democratic institutions,” added Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen with the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
