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A Pakistani businessman on trial in New York testified that an alleged plot he pursued at the direction of Iran could have targeted Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, even as he told jurors he acted out of fear for relatives in Iran and believed he would be caught before any violence occurred. The testimony came as the government presented its case that the men Merchant tried to recruit were actually undercover FBI agents.
Merchant, 47, testified through an Urdu interpreter in Brooklyn federal court that he expected he would be apprehended before any killing and said his family “was under threat.” He told jurors, “My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” adding, “I was not wanting to do this so willingly.” He also said he had anticipated cooperating with the U.S. government if he was arrested and hoped that would help him get a green card.
He said he traveled to the United States for a garment business, and that the interest of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard intelligence contact grew after those trips. Merchant testified that he was introduced to the contact around the end of 2022 and that the discussions initially involved Iran and informal money-transfer arrangements such as hawala before shifting to other instructions.
Merchant testified that the handler trained him on countersurveillance techniques and then directed him to seek U.S. residents willing to work for Iran. He told the jury that the next assignment involved looking for a criminal to arrange protests, steal things, do money laundering, “and maybe have somebody murdered,” according to his account of what he was told.
Merchant said the handler did not tell him the target by name at first, but that the handler named three people as possible targets: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley. Merchant also described sketching elements of a shooting plot at political-rally locations and trying to assemble money—he testified he gathered $5,000 from a cousin to pay the men as a “token of appreciation”—while he believed he was being monitored after earlier scrutiny by U.S. immigration officials.
According to prosecutors as described in court reporting, Merchant was arrested on July 12, 2024. The report said the supposed hit men he paid were undercover FBI agents, and that Merchant sat for voluntary FBI interviews before the case moved to trial rather than to a cooperation arrangement.
Merchant told jurors he did not approach law enforcement before he was arrested because he believed his handler had people watching him, and he testified that he expected investigators would not believe his account. In one exchange, his attorney Avraham Moskowitz asked him whether he was a “super-spy.” Merchant replied, “No,” and added, “Absolutely not.”
The trial unfolded less than a week after a strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which drew renewed attention to Iran and political violence in the United States. The jury was instructed to ignore news pertaining to the case, according to the reporting, and the Iranian government has denied plotting to kill Trump or other U.S. officials.