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A federal criminal trial in New York is examining claims that Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national, tried to hire hit men with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to kill a U.S. political figure, as U.S. officials have repeatedly raised concerns about Iranian-linked plotting. The case began in federal court last week, with testimony and exhibits coming days after broader conflict involving Iran became a prominent backdrop in U.S. politics.

During the proceedings, Judge Eric Komitee remarked to lawyers that “This trial is happening in interesting times,” according to court coverage. Merchant, 47, has pleaded not guilty to attempted terrorism and other charges, and prosecutors are seeking to connect the alleged plot to Iranian interests through evidence presented to jurors.

Prosecutors introduced information they said tied Merchant to Donald Trump, including that Merchant searched online for Trump rally locations. They also presented evidence that Merchant’s laptop contained photos of both Trump and then-President Joe Biden at a time when the two were rivals for the presidency.

FBI agent Jacqueline Smith testified about what Merchant allegedly told investigators in a July 2024 interview. She told jurors that Merchant said he had a Revolutionary Guard “handler,” that he believed the handler would help bankroll the plan, and that the handler would reimburse $5,000 that Merchant said he had obtained from a cousin and had given to people the FBI posed as hit men.

Smith also testified that Merchant relayed advice from the purported handler, telling jurors that Merchant was told, “If he noticed he was being surveilled, he should act normal.” Defense attorney Avraham Moskowitz, in turn, underscored that the July 2024 interview was not recorded and that the government’s sealed report on what Merchant said should be viewed as someone’s impression rather than a verbatim account.

Smith acknowledged that the sealed document was not a verbatim transcript, and the parties addressed the limits of what jurors could consider from the interview. Moskowitz also suggested to the jury that proffer sessions—typically a time when defendants and their lawyers explore potential cooperation—can involve “a mix of things ‘that may be true and other things that are said that may not be true,’” while jurors are not in the room for those discussions.

Alongside that limited window into the unrecorded interview, jurors also heard recordings that the FBI played in court and that prosecutors say show Merchant discussing violence with undercover agents. In a June 2024 recording, Merchant told undercover agents that he and associates in Pakistan were looking for people to steal documents and create protests at political events, and he added: “Maybe you can, say, kill someone.” In the same recording, an agent told Merchant that the “third thing” would “cost,” and asked whether it meant killing someone’s wife; Merchant replied that he did not yet know exactly whom.

About a week later, according to testimony presented during the trial, Merchant was recorded meeting the undercover agents at a Manhattan rooftop restaurant. Prosecutors also presented evidence that Merchant then handed the agents $5,000 in rolled-up, rubber-banded $100 bills in a nearby car.

Authorities said Merchant was arrested in Texas on July 12, 2024, while he was packing to fly back to Pakistan. Prosecutors’ case has also played into a broader political context in which Trump has publicly referenced alleged Iranian plotting, including as he discussed the death of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died in an attack carried out by the U.S. and Israel, according to the AP account.

A day after Merchant’s arrest, a Pennsylvania man made an attempt on Trump’s life at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. Officials said at the time that the gunman acted alone but that they had been tracking a threat on Trump’s life from Iran, a claim that Iran’s government called “unsubstantiated and malicious.” Trump later told ABC News, “I got him before he got me,” tying his remarks to the alleged Iranian threat.

Merchant’s alleged ties to Iran have been a point of contention in the case. The AP report said federal authorities have suggested for years that he had ties to Iran’s theocratic government, citing that Merchant has children in Iran and has traveled there, while his lawyers have characterized the trips as religious pilgrimages and family time.

Prosecutors have also connected their narrative to past official statements. When Merchant was indicted in 2024, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said the case was “straight out of the Iranian regime’s playbook,” and then-Attorney General Merrick Garland called it an example of “Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans,” according to the report. In court Tuesday, an agent’s testimony provided jurors a narrow view of what Merchant allegedly told investigators, while the defense pressed that the government’s account relied on a sealed, unrecorded proffer description rather than a recorded transcript.