A Pakistani man accused of plotting to assassinate United States politicians including President Donald Trump has told a US court he was forced into the scheme by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Asif Raza Merchant, 47, is facing charges in the United States for allegedly attempting to hire a hitman to kill American political figures. He pleaded not guilty when he was charged in September 2024.
Testifying during his trial on Wednesday, Merchant said members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pressured him to organise the murder-for-hire plot while his family was living in Tehran.
According to US media reports, he told the court he feared the safety of his wife and adopted daughter if he refused to cooperate.
“My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” Merchant said through an Urdu interpreter, according to the Washington Post. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly.”
Merchant claimed he believed authorities would arrest him before anyone could be harmed.
During testimony, he said his Iranian contact never explicitly ordered him to assassinate a particular individual. However, the names of three prominent US politicians reportedly came up in conversations — Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley.
US prosecutors say Merchant had “close ties to Iran” and described the alleged plot as typical of operations linked to the Iranian government.
Authorities also noted that Iranian officials have previously sought revenge against American leaders following the US killing of Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian commander, during the Assassination of Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
Merchant told the court he first began communicating with a member of the Revolutionary Guards around 2022 after being asked whether he was interested in doing “some work with the Iranian government”.
The plan he described allegedly included organising protests, stealing documents, laundering money and possibly arranging a political assassination.
He was eventually arrested after attempting to hire hitmen who were actually undercover agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The case is unfolding at a tense moment in global politics, as the United States and Israel continue military strikes against Iran following the reported killing of Ali Khamenei.
