A Pakistani national accused of attempting to arrange the assassination of several American political figures, including US President Donald Trump, has claimed that he was coerced by Iran’s elite military force into participating in the alleged murder-for-hire plan.
The defendant, Asif Raza Merchant, appeared in court on Wednesday where he told jurors that members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pressured him to carry out the scheme.
Merchant, 47, had previously been charged in September 2024 with attempting to recruit a hitman to eliminate unnamed American politicians. He has consistently denied the accusations and entered a plea of not guilty.
According to testimony presented during the trial, Merchant argued that he became entangled in the plan after facing threats directed at his family members living in Tehran. He told the court that he felt compelled to cooperate with the individuals who approached him, believing refusal could endanger his wife and adopted daughter.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have previously been linked to alleged plots targeting American officials, particularly following the 2020 killing of one of their senior commanders, Qasem Soleimani, in a United States military strike ordered during Trump’s presidency.
While giving evidence, Merchant stated that he believed the plan would fail before anyone could be harmed. He told the court that he never intended for any killing to take place and expected law enforcement authorities to intervene before the plot could progress further.
He testified that the instructions he received did not involve a single clearly defined target. However, he recalled that his contact in Iran had mentioned three prominent American political figures in connection with the alleged scheme: Trump, former US president Joe Biden, and former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
“My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” Merchant told the court through an Urdu interpreter, according to reports from the Washington Post. He further told the court, “I was not wanting to do this so willingly.”
The trial is unfolding during a period of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran. In recent weeks, American and Israeli military operations have targeted Iranian facilities, attacks that reportedly resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
US prosecutors previously described Merchant as someone with “close ties to Iran,” arguing that the alleged plan followed a pattern consistent with operations attributed to the Iranian government. Officials claimed the conspiracy resembled tactics historically associated with the Iranian leadership when targeting perceived adversaries abroad.
During testimony cited by the New York Times, Merchant explained that he first began communicating with an individual connected to the Revolutionary Guards around 2022. According to his account, the contact initially asked if he would be willing to undertake certain tasks on behalf of the Iranian government.
Merchant told the court that the assignment gradually expanded into a broader operation involving multiple elements. These included organizing protests, attempting to obtain sensitive documents, facilitating money laundering activities and potentially arranging the assassination of a political figure.
The defendant explained that his concern for his family’s safety in Tehran ultimately led him to agree to participate in the activities requested by the Iranian contact. He said he feared the consequences if he refused.
Authorities eventually arrested Merchant after he allegedly tried to recruit individuals to carry out the killings. The people he approached, however, turned out to be undercover agents working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
His arrest brought the alleged plot to an end before any violence could occur, and the case has since become one of the most closely watched trials involving accusations of foreign-backed assassination attempts against American leaders.
What you should know
Asif Raza Merchant is a Pakistani national accused by US authorities of attempting to arrange the assassination of American political leaders.
Prosecutors claim the alleged plan had links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has previously been accused of plotting revenge attacks against US officials following the killing of Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
Merchant denies the charges and says he only participated because Iranian operatives threatened his family in Tehran. He was arrested after approaching individuals he believed were hitmen but who were actually undercover FBI agents.
