Trump possible target of Pakistani national charged in murder-for-hire plot

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Trump possible target of Pakistani national charged in *******-for-hire plot

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Federal prosecutors have charged Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran, in a ******* for hire plot of a U.S. politician or government officials.

Courtesy: Department of Justice

A Pakistani national with ties to Iran was charged in a foiled plot to ************ U.S. government officials on ********* soil, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

Former President Donald Trump was one of the potential targets of the plot by Asif Merchant, who was arrested on July 12 in Texas before any attacks could be carried out, a senior law enforcement source told NBC News.

Trump was nearly ******* at a presidential campaign rally one day after Merchant’s arrest, when a would-be ********* on a nearby rooftop fired at the *********** nominee while he was speaking onstage.

Law enforcement officials do not believe the alleged plot by Merchant is related to the ************** attempt against Trump at the rally in Pennsylvania, NBC reported.

Trump’s Secret Service protection was recently increased after U.S. officials learned of an Iranian plot to ***** Trump, NBC News reported in mid-July. The former president’s security was heightened prior to the rally *********.

Merchant, 46, had orchestrated a plot to

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since at least April, the DOJ said in a ********* complaint that was unsealed Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

He spent time in Iran, then flew to the U.S., where he contacted an unnamed person who he thought could help him carry out the scheme.

But that person reported Merchant to law enforcement, becoming a confidential source.

The source put Merchant in touch with two “hitmen,” who were actually undercover officers, the court filing says.

Merchant paid the men $5,000 in cash in New York as an advance payment for murdering the officials, the ********* complaint alleges.

“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against ********* public officials for the ******** of Iranian General [Qassem] Soleimani,” Attorney General

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said in a press release announcing the *******-for-hire case.

Soleimani, who was then Iran’s most powerful general, was ******* by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, in January 2020. Trump was president at that time.

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