Justice Department Says Pakistani Man with Alleged Ties to Iran was Planning to Murder Trump

No one could have predicted this.

The Guardian:

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged over a foiled conspiracy to carry out political assassinations on US soil, the justice department said on Tuesday as it disclosed what officials say is the latest murder-for-hire plot to target US public figures.

Asif Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the US killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander, Qassem Soleimani, in 2020, according to a criminal complaint.

Merchant, who prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before traveling to the US from Pakistan, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York’s Brooklyn borough. A federal judge ordered him detained on 17 July, according to court records.

“For years, the justice department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement.

FBI investigators believe that Donald Trump, who approved the drone strike on Soleimani, and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot, CNN reported, citing a US official.

They put this out there, then they of course also say “but we don’t really think that.”


This is the same thing they did with Saddam and 911. They would keep saying “we think he did 911” and then later they would say “but we don’t really think that, we just think he’s bad and we should have a war.”

A Washington Post poll in 2003 showed that 69% of Americans thought Saddam personally ordered 911. The internet has probably changed that, but they can just start saying “Iran ordered the hit on Trump” and people will believe it. If Trump starts saying that, all of his followers will believe it.