Four days after former President Donald Trump came inches from death during a campaign rally, federal investigators interviewed a man charged in an Iran-backed plot to potentially assassinate the 45th president or two of his political rivals — President Biden or former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, according to an FBI document made public Thursday.
Asif Merchant, 46, a Pakistani man charged in the scheme, recounted his dealings with handler Mehardad Yousef, according to a proffer agreement released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who obtained it from law enforcement whistleblowers.
Merchant was charged with a single count of murder for hire after he allegedly sent $5,000 to an undercover FBI agent while trying to hire a hit man, according to a complaint unsealed last month.
He was arrested on July 12.
The proffer described a meeting at a safe house inside Iran, at which Yousef and Merchant debated the advantages of indoor or outdoor attempts on a US politician’s life.
Yousef “had drawn a diagram on a whiteboard to demonstrate to Merchant how an assassination could be conducted” and he also “drew a rectangle representing an area where a crowd would gather. At the top of the rectangle was a small box representing a podium whether the target could be located,” per the document.
Specifically, the document suggested that an indoor assassination attempt would be made with a pistol and a “far” or “outdoor” shot would be taken with a long-range rifle, per Merchant’s account.
Merchant also gave Yousef details about one of Trump’s rallies, including the number of cameras present along with details of security guards, motorcade size, and more.
“Merchant believed that both the near and far options would not be successful due to security, but assessed that there was a 50% chance that either tactic would succeed,” the document read.
Everything we know about the Trump assassination attempt
- 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified as the shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
- Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
- The gunman grazed Trump’s ear, killed a 50-year-old retired fire chief, and injured two other rally-goers.
- Investigators detailed Crooks’ search history to lawmakers, revealing that he looked for the dates of Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention.
- Crooks’ search history also revealed a broad interest in high-profile people and celebrities, regardless of their political affiliation, FBI officials reportedly said.
- Trump exclusively recounted surviving the “surreal” assassination attempt with The Post at the rally, remarking, “I’m supposed to be dead.”
- High-profile politicians, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the nation about the shooting, calling it “a heinous, horrible and cowardly act.”
The Pakistani man repeatedly denied getting specific target information from Yousef, though his handler dropped some hints about who it could be.
“Merchant asked Yousef what he should say to the mafia if they asked who would be the object of the killing,” the document read. “Yousef stated that it could be Donald Trump, then paused, and stated that it could be Joe Biden or Nikki Haley, or politicians, military people, or bureaucrats.”
Merchant added that he “understood” the killing would be revenge for the airstrike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which Trump ordered in January 2020.
The document also reveals Merchant trekked to New York City and scouted a Mexican club to “find and assess people who could conduct reconnaissance or facilitate communications on behalf” of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s charges allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement after the indictment was unsealed.
“Bad actors are determined to wreak havoc on our country, and American political leaders across both parties are sitting squarely in the crosshairs,” Grassley said in a statement Thursday.
“In this extraordinarily heightened threat environment, federal agencies ought to be laser-focused on building up public trust and reassuring the American people of their efforts to carry out their protective missions.”
Grassley said he had contacted the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration to ask about steps they’ve taken to investigate the Iranian plot.
“If they do ‘assassinate President Trump,’ which is always a possibility, I hope that America obliterates Iran, wipes it off the face of the Earth — If that does not happen, American Leaders will be considered ‘gutless’ cowards!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on July 25.
The FBI, Secret Service, multiple congressional committees, and other agencies are currently probing the July 13 near-assassination of Trump in Butler, Pa. by Thomas Matthew Crooks, whose bullets killed firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, and severely wounded two other rally attendees — David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.
Investigators have not revealed a motive for the attack, but Crooks is not believed to be connected to Iran.
In addition to the murder plot, Iran is also alleged to have backed a hack into the Trump campaign, which resulted in a leak of internal information to Politico and The Washington Post — both of whom appear to have declined to publish it.
Intelligence officials have warned that Iran has “demonstrated a longstanding interest in exploiting societal tensions through various means.”
