Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national, testified before a US court on Wednesday claiming he was forced to participate in a plot to kill President Donald Trump and other prominent American politicians by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In a case the Justice Department filed in 2024, Merchant is accused of terrorism and murder-for-hire. Due to its direct connection to some of the most explosive geopolitical events of recent years, the trial has garnered significant international attention since it commenced last week.
According to Naija News, Merchant testified that he did not take part in the purported plot out of loyalty to Iran or his own free will. He informed the court that he did not cooperate with the IRGC out of personal motive or ideological belief, but rather out of fear for his Tehran-based family.
Merchant told the court that his Iranian supervisor never directly ordered him to kill a specific person, according to a New York Times account of the proceedings. However, the handler identified three targets during discussions in the Iranian capital.
Trump, then-President Joe Biden, and previous Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley—who was unsuccessful in her attempt to win the GOP presidential nomination in 2024—are among the names.
Merchant openly informed the court, “I did not want to do this so willingly,” according to the court proceedings. His legal team has relied on this declaration as a key component of his coercion defense.
Coercion Defense Rejected by Prosecutors
However, the US Justice Department acted quickly to refute that claim. Prosecutors made it apparent that they do not believe Merchant’s version of events by stating in a letter to the presiding court on Tuesday that there was a “lack of evidentiary support for a true duress or coercion.”
According to the government, Merchant deliberately sought out Americans to carry out the scheme. The plot, according to the prosecution, was specially planned by the IRGC in punishment for the United States killing its top commander, General Qassem Soleimani, in a 2020 drone strike that Trump authorized during his first term in office.
In Iran, the IRGC is very powerful. The corps administers enormous economic interests, oversees military operations, and maintains an intelligence network that extends far beyond Iran’s boundaries. Its involvement in the purported conspiracy highlights how seriously the US government has handled the matter.
The trial begins concurrently with American strikes on Iran.
The trial’s timing is crucial because it started just days before Trump approved joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, and a number of other high-ranking Iranian officials. This operation significantly increased tensions between Washington and Tehran.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Trump made a clear connection between his decision to approve the attack on Khamenei and the purported murder attempt. “I got him before he got me,” Trump said to the network, sparking an instantaneous outcry throughout the world.
Iran, however, has continuously refuted any claims that it went after Trump or any other American figure. In direct response to the most recent trial developments, Tehran has not released a new statement.
