Pakistani man convicted of plotting to kill Trump over death of Iranian commander

Asif Merchant accused of trying to recruit people in 2024 plan to target Trump, Biden and other politicians in retaliation for killing of Qassem Suleimani A Pakistani man has been convicted of planning to kill Donald Trump and other prominent US politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran. Asif Merchant was accused of trying to recruit people in the US in a plan targeting Trump and others in retaliation for the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani in 2020, during Trump’s first term as president. Targets in the 2024 plot, federal prosecutors said, also included the then president Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the UN who ran against Trump that year for the Republican presidential nomination. Merchant was convicted of “murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries,” directed by the Iranian authorities, the US department of justice said in a statement. The trial in New York City started last week, days before Trump ordered an assault on Iran, carried out with Israel, that has expanded into the region’s biggest war in years. Merchant admitted to joining the plot orchestrated by Iran’s elite Islam