Merchant, 47, was the defendant at his attempted terrorism trial in New York, where he described an alleged plot that prosecutors portrayed as the work of a Pakistani businessman trying to hire hit men for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He told jurors that the targets named in the assignment included three U.S. political figures: Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley. He framed the work as something he felt he had to carry out for his family, not as an act he chose.
Merchant testified through an Urdu interpreter, saying, “My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” and adding, “I was not wanting to do this so willingly.” He said he had anticipated being apprehended before any killing occurred and that he believed that cooperating with authorities after the arrest would help his immigration status, including by helping him obtain a green card.
According to the government’s account, investigators were prepared for Merchant as he tried to arrange the murder-for-hire operation. The AP report said he was arrested on July 12, 2024, after authorities determined that the men he paid were undercover FBI agents. Merchant, the report said, did sit for voluntary FBI interviews, but the case proceeded to trial rather than to a cooperation agreement.
During questioning in Brooklyn federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta pressed Merchant with a direct question about the purpose of his travel to the United States. The report said Gupta asked, “You traveled to the United States for the purpose of hiring Mafia members to kill a politician, correct?” Merchant replied, “That’s right,” describing his answer as matter-of-fact even as the testimony was unusual.
Merchant also described how the alleged Revolutionary Guard connection began. He said he had a roughly 20-year banking career in Pakistan before becoming involved in multiple businesses, and he testified that he had two families—one in Pakistan and another in Iran. Merchant said he was introduced to a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative around the end of 2022 and that they initially discussed involvement in hawala, an informal money transfer system.
He told jurors that his travel to the United States for his garment business drew attention from his handler and that the handler trained him on countersurveillance techniques. Merchant said the handler instructed him to seek U.S. residents interested in working for Iran, then gave additional assignments involving moving money, arranging protests and stealing things, and “maybe have somebody murdered,” as the AP report put it.
Merchant told the court that after U.S. immigration agents pulled him aside at the Houston airport in April 2024—searched his possessions and asked about his travels—he concluded he was under surveillance. Even so, he said he researched Trump rally locations and sketched out a plot for a shooting at a political rally. He testified that he lined up supposed hit men and assembled $5,000 from a cousin to pay them, characterizing it as a “token of appreciation.”
Merchant said he reported back to the handler by sending observations to Iran, which he described as fake, through intermediaries using a book he shipped. He told jurors he played along because the handler indicated he knew where Merchant’s Iranian relatives lived and that people were watching him, according to the AP report.
Prosecutors, in turn, pointed to gaps they said undercut Merchant’s account of duress. The report said that in a court filing this week, prosecutors noted Merchant did not seek out law enforcement to get help before he was arrested. It also said that prosecutors argued that in Merchant’s FBI interviews he “neglected to mention any facts that could have supported” an argument that he acted under duress.
The testimony unfolded as the trial coincided with fast-moving events in the Middle East. The AP report said the trial is unfolding amid the less than week-old Iran war, which it described as having killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a strike that President Donald Trump said in his own words: “I got him before he got me.” It added that jurors were instructed to ignore news pertaining to the case while they deliberated.
As the proceedings continued, Merchant sought to rebut the idea that he was a clandestine figure operating with skill and confidence. The report said defense lawyer Avraham Moskowitz asked him, “And are you a super-spy?” Merchant replied, “No,” and added, “Absolutely not.”