According to indictments unsealed Tuesday, Asif Merchant, 46, spent two weeks in Iran before flying to the U.S. in April. He was there to seek help targeting government officials and politicians.
The plan, prosecutors say, had three parts: Stealing documents or computer files from a target's home, planning a protest and then killing the target on U.S. soil.
The White House declined to comment on details of the case, but said confronting the Iranian threat was a top priority.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We have said repeatedly that we track Iranian threats against former politicians. We have been very clear about that.”
Jean-Pierre said many of the threats were related to Iran’s desire to retaliate for the 2020 US airstrike in Baghdad that killed Qassem Soleimani, a senior Iranian military commander. Jean-Pierre continued,
“We have devoted extraordinary resources to gathering additional information about these threats, disrupting individuals involved in these threats, increasing protective arrangements for potential targets of these threats, engaging foreign partners and alerting Iran directly.”
When contacted by VOA, the suspect's court-appointed attorney declined to comment.
But court documents say Merchant told an informant he could make up to $100,000 and that he paid a $5,000 deposit to two undercover officers posing as hitmen.
And while the documents never identified any of the U.S. officials on Merchant's target list, the chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said in a statement that it was the case that prompted the U.S. Secret Service to beef up security for former President Donald Trump.
U.S. officials arrested Merchant on July 12, the day before an unrelated assassination attempt targeting Trump at a rally in western Pennsylvania.
Although Merchant is already in custody, some analysts are bracing for more threats.
Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said, “Much like Iran’s projectiles, sometimes quantity can trump quality.”
Ben Taleblu pointed to previous Iranian plans targeting former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, Iranian dissidents and others, adding: “On the one hand, some of these plans may seem excessive or very unreasonable, but on the other hand, there is a consistency behind it, which is worrying.”
Top U.S. officials agree with the FBI director who told lawmakers last month, “I expect there will be many more.” (uh/jm)
