A Pakistani man accused of plotting to kill US politicians including President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was pressured by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps to devise the murder-for-hire scheme, according to US media.
Asif Raza Merchant, 47, was charged in September 2024 with seeking to hire a hitman to assassinate unidentified US politicians. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Revolutionary Guards have previously sought to kill top US officials, such as Trump following the 2020 killing of one of their commanders, Qasem Soleimani, by the United States.
During his trial Wednesday, Merchant testified that he was forced into the plot to protect his family in the Iranian capital Tehran from the Guards, adding that he thought he would get caught before anyone was killed, multiple media outlets reported.
He said he was never ordered to kill a specific person but noted his Iranian contact had mentioned three people in connection with the plot: Trump, former president Joe Biden and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
"My family was under threat, and I had to do this," Merchant told the court through an Urdu interpreter, according to the Washington Post.
"I was not wanting to do this so willingly."
Merchant's trial comes as the US and Israel carry out attacks on Iran, which have killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
US officials previously said Merchant had "close ties to Iran" and described his alleged plot as "straight out of the Iranian regime's playbook."
Merchant said this week he began working with a member of the Guards about 2022, when the man asked him if he was "interested in doing some work with the Iranian government," the New York Times reported.
He was eventually instructed to orchestrate a plot that involved arranging protests, stealing documents, laundering money and potentially having someone killed.
The Times reported that Merchant said he had been worried about what would happen to his wife and adopted daughter in Iran, so he agreed to the operation.
He was arrested after reportedly trying to hire hitmen that turned out to be undercover FBI agents.
