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Pakistani man with ties to Iran is charged in plot to carry out political assassinations on US soil

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Pakistani man with ties to Iran is charged  in plot to carry out political assassinations on US soil
News

News

Pakistani man with ties to Iran is charged in plot to carry out political assassinations on US soil

2024-08-07 13:16 Last Updated At:13:20

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, including potentially of former President Donald Trump.

The case disclosed by the Justice Department on Tuesday comes two years after officials disrupted a separate scheme that they said was aimed at former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.

Asif Merchant traveled to New York in June for the purpose of meeting with men he thought he was recruiting to carry out the killings, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, federal officials said. He was arrested in July as he prepared to leave the United States, after having told the men that he would provide further instructions, including the names of the intended targets, in August or September after he returned to Pakistan.

Court documents do not identify any of the potential targets. But U.S. officials acknowledged in July that a threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a Pennsylvania rally in which Trump was injured by a shooter's bullet. That July 13 shooting, carried out by a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was unrelated to the Iran threat and Merchant's arrest has no connection to the Trump assassination attempt, a law enforcement official said.

But an FBI agent's affidavit suggests Merchant had current or former high-level officials like Trump in mind. He told an associate who was secretly cooperating with law enforcement that he wanted a “political person" to be killed, the complaint said, mapping out on a napkin the different scenarios in which the target could be assassinated and warning that there would be security “all around."

U.S. officials have warned for years about Iran’s desire to avenge the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. That strike was ordered by Trump when he was president. The U.S. government has since paid for security for multiple Trump administration officials, and in 2022, the Justice Department charged an Iranian operative in a foiled plot to kill Bolton.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a July House hearing that the Iranian government had been “extremely aggressive and brazen” in recent years, and Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday that "we expect that these threats will continue and that these cases will not be the last.

“The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans,” he said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday during an afternoon press briefing that the U.S. had been "tracking Iranian threats against former politicians.”

“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority. We have repeatedly met at the highest levels of our government to develop and implement a comprehensive response," she said.

Federal officials identified Merchant, 46, as a Pakistani citizen who has said he has a wife and children in Iran and who traveled frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq. A lawyer for Merchant declined to comment Tuesday when reached by The Associated Press.

After Merchant's arrest, Justice Department prosecutors urged a judge to keep him locked up, writing in a detention memo that before flying from Pakistan to the U.S., he spent approximately two weeks in Iran. "Given the seriousness of the murder for hire charges, the defendant has every incentive to flee to either Pakistan or Iran, significantly reducing the likelihood of his appearance in this case should he flee.”

He was ordered detained following a court appearance.

In Pakistan, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said she saw media reports about the arrest.

“We are in touch with the U.S. authorities and await further details," her statement read. "We have also noted the statements by U.S. officials that this is an ongoing investigation. Before giving our formal reaction, we also need to be sure of the antecedents of the individual in question.”

Court documents trace the foiled plot to April, when Merchant flew to the U.S. to recruit participants in the scheme. He contacted a person he thought would help him but who instead alerted law enforcement. That person became a confidential source for investigators, including by introducing Merchant to the purported hitmen, officials said.

After meeting the two undercover officers posing as hitmen, the affidavit says, Merchant told them the work would be long-term. He instructed them that in addition to the killings, he would expect them to arrange protests at political rallies, steal documents and launder money for him. He told them he would return to Pakistan before giving them additional instructions.

Officials say Merchant paid a $5,000 advance for the planned killings.

“Now we know we’re going forward. We’re doing this,” one of the purported hitmen said, according to the affidavit.

“Yes, absolutely," Merchant replied.

Merchant was arrested July 12, the same day he planned to leave the U.S. Prosecutors say a search of his wallet found a handwritten note that included code words he had used to communicate with the individuals he thought were hitmen.

This image provided by the Justice Department, contained in the complaint supporting the arrest warrant, shows Asif Merchant. The Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, the Justice Department said Aug. 6, 2024. (Justice Department via AP)

This image provided by the Justice Department, contained in the complaint supporting the arrest warrant, shows Asif Merchant. The Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, the Justice Department said Aug. 6, 2024. (Justice Department via AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A female student was killed and another student was wounded Wednesday in a shooting in a Nashville high school cafeteria, police said.

The 17-year-old shooter, who was also a student at Antioch High School, later shot and killed himself with a handgun, Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news conference. Police identified him as Solomon Henderson.

Police Chief John Drake said the shooter “confronted” a 16-year-old female student in the cafeteria and opened fire, killing her. Police identified her as Josselin Corea Escalante. Drake said police are looking into a motive and whether the students who were shot were targeted.

The male student who was wounded suffered a graze, and was treated and released from the hospital, Drake said. Another student was taken to a hospital for treatment of a facial injury that happened during a fall, Aaron said.

There were two school resource officers in the building when the shooting happened around 11 a.m. CDT, Aaron said. They were not in the immediate vicinity of the cafeteria and by the time they got down there the shooting was over and the gunman had killed himself, Aaron said.

The school has about 2,000 students and is located in Antioch, a neighborhood about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of downtown Nashville.

At a family safety center close to a hospital, officials were helping shocked parents to reunite with their children.

Dajuan Bernard was waiting at a Mapco service station to reunite with his son, a 10th grader, who was being held in the auditorium with other students on Wednesday afternoon. He first heard of the shooting from his son who “was a little startled,” Bernard said. His son was upstairs from the cafeteria but said he heard the gunfire.

“He was OK and let me know that everything was OK,” Bernard said.

“This world is so crazy, it could happen anywhere," he said. "We’ve just got to protect the kids, and raise the kids right to prevent them from even doing this. That’s the hardest part.”

Fonda Abner, whose granddaughter is a student at the school, said Antioch High does not have metal detectors that would alert officials to the presence of a gun. She said her granddaughter had called her a couple of times but that she only heard commotion and thought it was a pocket dial. They spoke briefly before being cut off.

“It’s nerve-wracking waiting out here,” Abner said.

Adrienne Battle, superintendent of Nashville schools, said public schools have implemented a “range of safety measures," including partnerships with police for school resource officers, security cameras with weapon-detection software, shatter-resistant film for glass, and security vestibules that are a barrier between outside visitors and the main entrance.

“Unfortunately, these measures were not enough to stop this tragedy,” Battle said.

She noted that there are questions about whether stationary metal detectors should be considered.

“While past research has shown they have had limitations and unintended consequences, we will continue to explore emerging technologies and strategies to strengthen school safety,” Battle said.

Wednesday’s school shooting comes nearly two years after a shooter opened fire at a separate Nashville private elementary school and killed six people, including three children.

The tragedy prompted a monthslong effort among hundreds of community organizers, families, protesters and many more pleading with lawmakers to consider passing gun control measures in response to the shooting.

However, in a Republican-dominant state, GOP lawmakers refused to do so. With the Republican supermajority intact after November’s election, it’s unlikely attitudes have changed enough to consider any meaningful bills that would address gun control.

Instead, lawmakers have been more open to adding more security to schools — including passing a bill last year that would allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school grounds, and bar parents and other teachers from knowing who was armed.

Antioch has endured other prominent shootings in recent years. A 2017 fatal shooting at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ killed one woman and wounded seven people. And in 2018, a shooter killed four people at a Waffle House.

Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed.

People wait as school buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

People wait as school buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

School buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

School buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Families wait as school buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Families wait as school buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An ambulance leaves the Antioch High School following a shooting in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An ambulance leaves the Antioch High School following a shooting in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An ambulance leaves the Antioch High School following a shooting in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An ambulance leaves the Antioch High School following a shooting in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Families wait a school buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Families wait a school buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Dasia Pleitez prays as she waits for her daughter at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Dasia Pleitez prays as she waits for her daughter at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

School bus arrives at a unification site following a shooting at at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

School bus arrives at a unification site following a shooting at at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

School buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

School buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A school bus arrives at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A school bus arrives at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

People wait as school buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

People wait as school buses arrive at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An ambulance leaves the Antioch High School following a shooting in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

An ambulance leaves the Antioch High School following a shooting in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A school bus arrives at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A school bus arrives at a unification site following a shooting at the Antioch High School in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

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