Man convicted in political assassination plot he tied to Iranian paramilitary

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Man convicted in political assassination plot he tied to Iranian paramilitary

2026-03-07 07:58 Last Updated At：08:00

NEW YORK (AP) — A Pakistani business owner who tried to hire hit men to kill a U.S. politician was convicted Friday in a trial that showcased allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil.

As the Iran war unfolded in the Mideast, Asif Merchant acknowledged in a U.S. court that he sought to put an assassination in motion during the 2024 presidential campaign — a plot that was quickly disrupted by American investigators before it had a chance to proceed.

A jury in Brooklyn convicted Merchant on terrorism and murder for hire charges. He faces up to life in prison.

The verdict after only a couple hours of deliberations followed a weeklong trial that included remarkable testimony from Merchant himself.

Merchant told the jury he was carrying out instructions from a contact in the Islamic Republic’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. According to Merchant, the handler never specified a target but broached names including then-candidate Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador who was also in the race for a time.

The Iranian government has denied trying to kill U.S. officials.

The nascent plot fell apart after Merchant showed an acquaintance what he had in mind by using objects on a napkin to depict a shooting at a rally. He asked the man to help him hire assassins. Instead, he was introduced to undercover FBI agents who were secretly recording him, as had the acquaintance.

Merchant told the supposed hit men he needed services that could include killing “some political person” and paid them $5,000 in cash in a parked car in Manhattan.

“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement released after the conviction.

Merchant's attorney, Avraham Moskowitz, didn’t immediately reply to a message seeking comment.

Merchant, 47, worked for Pakistani banks for decades before going into clothing and other businesses. He has two families, in Pakistan and Iran, and he sometimes visited the U.S. for his garment business.

Merchant testified that he met a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative about three years ago. The contact gave him countersurveillance training and assignments including the assassination scheme, Merchant said.

He maintained that he had to do his handler's bidding to protect loved ones in Iran. The defendant said he reluctantly went through the motions but thought he'd be arrested and explain his situation to authorities before anyone was killed.

“I was going along with it," he said, speaking in Urdu through a court interpreter.

Prosecutors emphasized that Merchant admitted taking steps to enact the plan on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard, which the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist organization, and he didn't proactively go to authorities.

Instead, he was packing for a flight to Pakistan when he was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania. Officials said it appeared the Butler gunman acted alone but that they had been tracking a threat on Trump’s life from Iran, a claim that the Islamic Republic called “unsubstantiated and malicious.”

When Merchant subsequently spoke to FBI agents to explore the possibility of a cooperation agreement, he didn't say he had acted out of fear for his family.

Prosecutors argued that he didn't back up a defense of acting under duress. Merchant sought to persuade jurors he simply didn't think the agents would believe him because they seemed to “think that I am some type of super-spy," which he said he was “absolutely not.”

Former Democratic presidents remember the late Rev. Jesse Jackson during final public tribute

CHICAGO (AP) — From former presidents to an NBA Hall of Famer to prominent pastors, stories of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.’s influence on politics, corporate boardrooms and picket lines loomed large Friday at a celebration honoring the late civil rights leader.

The public tribute — with appearances by Grammy-winning gospel singers and Jennifer Hudson — felt at times like a church service and others like a political rally. Many, from former President Bill Clinton to the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader and founder of the National Action Network, likened Jackson’s death to a call to action, from speaking out against justice to voting in the midterms.

Former President Barack Obama said Jackson's presidential runs in the 1980s set the stage for other Black leaders, including his own successful 2009 presidency and reelection.

“The message he sent to a 22-year-old child of a single mother with a funny name, an outsider, was that maybe there wasn’t any place or any room where we didn’t belong,” Obama said to the boisterous crowd of thousands. “He paved the road for so many others to follow."

The event drew a slew of elected U.S. leaders. Other notable attendees included actor and producer Tyler Perry, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and political activist and theologian Cornel West. Detroit Pistons great and Chicago native Isiah Thomas also spoke at the event that lasted five hours.

The crowd gave an especially warm welcome to Obama, who launched his political career in Chicago, and credited Jackson with keeping him on his toes. He said he was grateful to Jackson for providing a “legacy of hope" in contrast with the current Republican leadership in Washington.

“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope,” Obama said. “Each day we wake up to some new assault to our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible.”

Clinton said Jackson made him a better president, while former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris talked about Jackson's inspiring 1980s presidential runs and showed off campaign memorabilia she had kept from them. Former President Joe Biden also spoke during the service.

President Donald Trump, who praised Jackson on social media after he died and also shared photos of the two of them, did not attend.

The event honoring the protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate followed memorial services that drew large crowds in Chicago and South Carolina, where Jackson was born. Friday’s celebration — at an influential Black church with a 10,000-seat arena — was the largest.

Attendees waited in long lines outside the church as television screens played excerpts of some of Jackson’s most famous speeches. Inside, vendors sold pins with his 1984 presidential slogan and hoodies with his “I Am Somebody” mantra.

Marketing professional Chelsia Bryan said Friday that she decided to attend for the "chance to be part of something historic.”

“As a Black woman, knowing that someone pretty much gave their life, dedicated their life to make sure I can do the things that I can do now, he’s worth honoring,” Bryan said.

Jackson died last month at age 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his mobility and ability to speak. His final public appearances included the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

"Every single person in here has a Jesse Jackson story,” his eldest son, Jesse Jackson Jr., said to the crowd. “The time he shook your hand, the time he prayed for you, the time he held you up, the time he prayed the funeral for somebody you know ... and he prayed you to a new course of existence.”

Sitting in the crowd was 90-year-old Mary Lovett. She said Jackson’s advocacy inspired her many times, from when she moved from Mississippi to Chicago in the 1960s, taught elementary school and became a mom. She voted for Jackson during his presidential runs and appreciated how he always spoke up for underrepresented people.

“He’s gone, but I hope his legacy lives,” she said. “I hope we can remember what he tried to teach us.”

Jackson's pursuits were countless, taking him to all corners of the globe: Advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues including voting rights, health care, job opportunities and education. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.

Sharpton, who considered the late reverend a lifelong mentor, said he hoped attendees would take home some of the “Jackson fire.”

“Don’t sit here so holy and sanctified and act like you have no assignment yourself,” he said to the increasingly boisterous crowd. “We didn’t come this far to turn around now.”

Another son, Yusef Jackson, who runs the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, recalled how his father carried a well-worn Bible but also showed his faith by showing up to picket lines.

“He lived a revolutionary Christian faith rooted in justice, nonviolence and the moral righteousness,” he said. “He was deeply involved in the political struggles of his time, but his gift was that he could rise above them. It’s not about the left wing or the right wing. It takes two wings to fly. For him, the goal was always the moral center.”

A final homegoing service was scheduled for Saturday at Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Services in Washington, D.C., were tabled after a request to allow Jackson to lie in honor in the United States Capitol rotunda was denied by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said the space is typically reserved for select officials, including former presidents.