Washington. A Pakistani terrorist who was out to kill many leaders including US President Donald Trump has been caught. It revealed in court that Iran’s spies had asked me to assassinate Trump. The name of the accused terrorist is Asif Merchant. His age is 47 years. He told the court that his family was threatened and he had to join the conspiracy to save them. He had no choice. According to reports, accused Asif Merchant said in front of the judge in the federal court in Brooklyn, ‘I had no other option. My family was threatened.
She said, ‘He didn’t tell me clearly who, but he took three names: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley.’ At that time Donald Trump and Joe Biden were the leading candidates for the 2024 presidential election. Nikki Haley is the former Governor of South Carolina. She had dropped out of the election race just a month ago. He is accused of paying $5,000 to two undercover FBI agents, who were acting as hitmen, for the attack. The accused merchant was earlier a banker and later his banana trading company failed. He told the court that in April 2024, his Iranian spy handler had ordered him to go to the US and perhaps kill someone. Asif Merchant was arrested in August 2024 and denied charges of terrorism and abetting the murder. He claimed that his spy handler had ordered him to carry out the murder as well as steal unknown documents. His handler was identified as Mehrdad Yusuf, reportedly a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The accused merchant said that he supported the conspiracy because Yusuf had put pressure on his relatives living in Iran. She further claimed that Yusuf came to her house in Iran unannounced and even showed her a weapon during the meeting. According to reports, Merchant told the judge, ‘My family was in danger and I had to do this.’ Secret FBI security cameras recorded the accused Merchant planning the assassination of a Republican leader during a meeting at a cheap hotel in Queens in June 2024.
