Pakistani man with ties to Iran charged with 'plotting to assassinate US politician'

A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been charged in the US in connection to an attempt to assassinate an American politician or official, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.

Asif Merchant, 46, has been charged with murder-for-hire, with the Justice Department saying the alleged plot involved stealing documents from a target's home and planning a protest.

He is being held in federal custody in New York.

After spending time in Iran, Mr Merchant arrived in the US through Pakistan in April and contacted a person he believed could assist him with the scheme, according to the Justice Department – but that person alerted the authorities.

The person Mr Merchant contacted allegedly arranged a meeting with a number of “hit men”, who were, in fact, undercover law-enforcement agents.

"The charges in the complaint are allegations and Merchant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty," the Justice Department said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear which politician or official was the target of the alleged plot.

CNN quoted a US official as saying, however, that FBI investigators believed former president Donald Trump and other current and former government officials were the intended targets.

US authorities received intelligence in recent months of a plot by Iran to assassinate Mr Trump. An attempt on his life was made last month, although the gunman's motives are still unknown.

“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 Suleimani,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

He was referring to the former head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations who was assassinated in a US drone attack near Baghdad International Airport early in 2020.

Iran's mission to the UN told The National: “We have not received any reports on this matter from the US government. However, it is evident that the modus operandi in question contradicts the Iranian government’s policy of legally prosecuting the murderer of General Soleimani.”

“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,” Mr Garland said.

FBI director Christopher Wray said the plot was “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,” Mr Wray said.

Adla Massoud contributed to this report from the United Nations