{"id":151420,"date":"2026-03-03T19:29:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151420\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T19:29:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:29:30","slug":"as-war-rages-in-iran-brooklyn-trial-reveals-wannabe-trump-assassins-ties-to-iranian-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/151420\/","title":{"rendered":"As war rages in Iran, Brooklyn trial reveals wannabe Trump assassin’s ties to Iranian intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wannabe Trump assassin Asif Merchant admitted to the FBI that he has an Iranian intelligence handler and a relative who works for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, testimony at his Brooklyn trial<\/a> revealed Tuesday, as the war in Iran rages halfway around the world.<\/p>\n

Merchant, 47, is on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court for murder-for-hire and terrorism related charges, accused of trying to mastermind<\/a> a political assassination but getting tricked by a confidential informant into hiring two undercover feds as hitmen.<\/p>\n

Well before the recent attack that killed Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni, the feds have said Iran had wanted to avenge the death of one of the regime\u2019s generals, Qasem Soleimani, killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020. Though Merchant didn\u2019t get far enough into the plot to name his target to the agents, court filings show the feds believe he was gaming out killing Donald Trump on the 2024 campaign trail.<\/p>\n

Up until Tuesday, the jury heard only passing references to Merchant\u2019s ties to Iran<\/a> \u2014 that he was a Pakistani citizen with a second wife in Iran, and that he\u2019d occasionally travel there.<\/p>\n

But when Merchant\u2019s defense team suggested during a witness cross-examination that he didn\u2019t know any secret agent or intelligence types, that opened the door to what he told the FBI during a \u201cproffer statement,\u201d usually given to the feds by defendants who are considering cooperating with the government.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, FBI special agent Jacqueline Smith told jurors that Merchant admitted his cousin, worked for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,<\/a> also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and that Merchant had an IRGC handler.<\/p>\n

The cousin provided Merchant the $5,000 he used to make a down-payment on the \u201chitmen\u201d in his plot, and when the cousin discussed being repaid, \u201c(Merchant) said he would obtain the cash through his IRGC handler,\u201d Smith testified.<\/p>\n

Merchant also talked about a conversation between him and his handler: \u201cThe defendant said his IRGC handler, Yousef, told him that if he noticed he was being surveilled, he should act normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Asif<\/p>\n

Court evidence<\/p>\n

Asif Merchant, accused of plotting the assassination of Donald Trump, is pictured in a video taken by a government informant. (Court evidence)<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Eric Komitee on Monday briefly touched on the U.S. and Israel\u2019s attack to strike Iran over the weekend, noting \u201cthis trial is happening during interesting times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merchant sat down with the FBI, a defense lawyer and an Urdu interpreter on three separate days in July 2024 after his arrest, Smith said. His lawyer, Avraham Moskowitz, pointed out that the interviewed weren\u2019t videotaped or recorded, only memorialized by someone taking notes and distilled into a written report.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was an interpretation of what happened?\u201d he asked, and Smith replied, \u201cI disagree with that characterization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of the view of the jury Moskowitz suggested that he might raise whether Merchant was lying about his IRGC connections to secure a better deal. But after Komittee said he\u2019d allow prosecutors to counter with Merchant\u2019s statements to the FBI that he, too, was an IRGC operative, the defense lawyer said he wouldn\u2019t pursue that line of questioning.<\/p>\n

Jurors so far have heard testimony from the confidential informant who connected Merchant with two FBI agents posing as Mafia killers for hire, as well as from the two agents themselves, and have seen and heard video and audio from their meetings.<\/p>\n

\"Asif<\/p>\n

Court evidence<\/p>\n

Asif Merchant, accused of plotting the assassination of Donald Trump, is pictured in a video taken by a government informant. (Court evidence)<\/p>\n

One of the FBI agents, Jim Pappas, told jurors about how he and his partner first met Merchant at a strip club on June 10, 2024, \u201cto build a foundation of our persona as being a criminal organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also bought Merchant a lap dance to prove they were security-conscious, telling Merchant the stripper was making sure he wasn\u2019t wearing a wire, Pappas said. Pappas and his partner moved their meeting to a vehicle outside the strip club, so they could record it, and pushed him on on naming his target, but he said he\u2019d have to return to Pakistan first before he named a name.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou, like, you want somebody\u2019s wife killed?\u201d Pappas asked, and Merchant told him know, then said, \u201cUh, may- maybe it\u2019s some political person, maybe some other person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow,\u201d Pappas said, and his partner echoed, \u201cA politician?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s gonna cost,\u201d Pappas said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wannabe Trump assassin Asif Merchant admitted to the FBI that he has an Iranian intelligence handler and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-151420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}