Free Republic

A Pakistani man has been convicted of planning to kill Donald Trump and other prominent US politicians. The trial showcased allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil. Asif Merchant, 47, was accused of trying to recruit ‌people in the US in a plan targeting Mr Trump and others after Washington's killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, during his first term. Then president Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who ran ​against Mr Trump that year for the Republican presidential nomination, were also targeted in the ​2024 plot. ...

The suspect claimed that in addition to Trump, his Iranian handler also named Biden and Haley as possible targets. ..."I was not wanting to do this so willingly," the New York Times quoted Merchant as telling a court during his trial for terrorism and murder-for-hire charges, adding that he participated to protect his family in Tehran.

In today’s world, there are 193 countries in the UN. The large majority of those countries will vote consistently against the United States on measures that come before the General Assembly. Then again, the international system that counts is not the UN, but rather the U.S.-led commercial and legal order of alliances and trade. Almost all of the 193 UN member countries participate willingly in that system, to their great benefit. They may oppose the U.S. on many issues, and they may have disputes with their immediate neighbors, but they don’t make themselves constant troublemakers threatening to disrupt world peace...

A Pakistani citizen residing in Canada, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested on Sept. 4 in Canada in connection with a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York. Khan was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). “The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7th of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” said Attorney...

Two attempts on the life of a former president, less than two months apart, is unprecedented in American history. And yet it’s not entirely surprising given that the country’s most powerful institutions and industries have spent the last eight years weaponizing the most suggestible and mentally ill of our citizenry to target Donald Trump and his supporters. Now it seems the FBI may be recruiting from abroad as well. According to the Trump campaign, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently briefed the Republican candidate on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort...

A group of leading bipartisan senators conducting oversight of homeland security and governmental matters are demanding answers from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after an alleged Iranian agent was charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for orchestrating a scheme to assassinate a politician or U.S. official — potentially former President Trump. Pakistani national Asif Merchant was charged with seeking to carry out a murder-for-hire, the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said earlier this month. "This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s charges allegedly was...

The FBI allowed Asif Raza Merchant, the Pakistani man charged with plotting with Tehran to assassinate Donald Trump and others, to enter the U.S. in April with special permission known as “significant public benefit parole” even though he was flagged on a terrorism watchlist and recently traveled to Iran, according to government documents reviewed by Just the News. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force interviewed Merchant, fingerprinted him and inspected the contents of his electronic devices when he arrived at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in Houston, but then let him leave with the special parole that expired on May...

The Defendant Allegedly Traveled to New York City to Hire Hitmen to Murder a Politician or U.S. Government Official on U.S. SoilEarlier today, a complaint was unsealed in Brooklyn charging Asif Merchant, also known as Asif Raza Merchant, 46, with murder-for-hire as part of an alleged scheme to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on U.S. soil. Law enforcement foiled the charged plot before any attack could be carried out. Merchant is in federal custody.“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...

The FBI is claiming to have foiled a sophisticated Iran-sponsored terror plot, in which a Pakistani was attempting to hire hitmen to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil. But the court records show that the “hitmen” were, in fact, undercover FBI agents. The case looks similar to the supposed 2022 Iran plot to kill former national security adviser John Bolton. In that case, the FBI claimed that a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Qods Force tried assassinating Bolton—but the Iranian was never confirmed to be an IRGC-QF member, and the “assassin” he was trying to hire was an...

A federal complaint unsealed on Tuesday in Brooklyn has charged Asif Merchant, also known as “Asif Raza Merchant,” a 46-year-old Pakistani national, with murder-for-hire in connection with a foiled assassination plot targeting a politician or U.S. government officials on American soil. The plot was thwarted by law enforcement before any attack could be executed. Merchant is currently in federal custody in New York, according to the press release. FBI investigators believe that the intended targets of the plot included Trump and other current and former U.S. government officials, according to a U.S. official briefed on the matter, per CNN. According...