A federal jury in New York has convicted Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man, of murder for hire and of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. The verdict came on a Friday in March, and prosecutors say the plot behind it was meant to avenge the 2020 killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
The Justice Department describes Merchant as a trained operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He admitted at trial that the Guard sent him to the United States to arrange political assassinations. He arrived in April 2024. A few months later he sat down with men he took for hired killers, who were undercover U.S. law enforcement officers. He was arrested in July 2024, and the Justice Department says the plot was foiled before any attack could be carried out.
Among those said to be on the target list was Nikki Haley. The former U.N. ambassador, who served in Trump’s first term, said the FBI told her in 2024 that the Iranian regime had put a hit on her life. She has used the conviction to warn about the threat Iran poses.
A second case, a month before the election
Merchant was not the only Iran-linked murder-for-hire case to reach the courts. In November 2024, the Justice Department unsealed charges against three men over a separate scheme. Farhad Shakeri, 51, an Afghan refugee who was deported to Iran in 2008 after serving 14 years in New York state prisons for armed robbery, was described as an asset of the Guard. Prosecutors say he recruited two men he had known from prison, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathan Loadholt, 36.
According to the documents, Shakeri told the FBI his handlers had given him seven days to produce a plan to kill Trump before the November 5 election. He said he did not intend to meet that deadline. He also told agents the Iranians believed Trump would be easier to target without a full presidential Secret Service detail, and that they had spent heavily already. “We have already spent a lot of money so the money’s not an issue,” his handlers allegedly told him.
Shakeri was in Tehran, out of reach of U.S. agents, when the charges came out. Rivera and Loadholt were in custody. The complaint says Shakeri promised the pair $100,000 to find and kill an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime. Activist Masih Alinejad said on Fox News that she was the target. Rivera and Loadholt traveled to Fairfield University in Connecticut, where she was due to appear, and watched her Brooklyn home.
In a voice note, Shakeri told Rivera to wait for her at the house door or while she was out. “Don’t think about going in,” he said. “In is a suicide move.”
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said few actors pose as grave a threat to U.S. national security as Iran. Alinejad said she was grateful to the FBI for warning her. “I don’t want to die,” she said. “I want to be alive to see the end of this regime.”
Sources
- Man Linked to Iranian Regime Convicted of Trump Assassination Plot
- Iranian 'spy' on the run after assassination plot foiled by FBI
