New York, March 4
War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday that the US has killed the mastermind of failed plots to assassinate President Donald Trump, while a Pakistani man is on trial here charged in one of the schemes.
Hegseth said at a news conference in Washington, "Yesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed."
He did not name the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) unit.
"President Trump got the last laugh," Hegseth said about avenging the plots against him.
The trial of the Pakistani man, Asif Merchant, was scheduled in the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, long before the Iran war started.
The judge presiding over the trial, Eric Komitee, remarked about the coincidence, "This trial is happening in interesting times."
Asif is charged with terrorism for allegedly working with Iran in the alleged plot to hire hitmen to attack Trump during the 2024 presidential election campaign.
The prosecutor in the case, Nina Gupta, told the court on Monday that Merchant used a clothing business as cover for the operation, and he wanted to attack those whom he believed were against Pakistan and the Muslim world.
Asif was arrested in July 2024 while trying to leave the US.
Unconnected to the alleged plot, the day after Merchant's arrest, an American man tried to kill Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania but missed by inches and only hurt his ear.
The Biden administration issued warnings about the dangers to Trump during the campaign.
The prosecution said that Merchant spoke to his contact, a Pakistani man who was a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant, about hiring hitmen.
That man put him in touch with undercover agents posing as hitmen-for-hire, to whom Asif outlined his plot and gave them $5,000 as an advance.
An FBI agent, Jacqueline Smih, told the court that Asif admitted he received training from the IRGC.
He communicated with them by sending information hidden in gift packages routed through Pakistan, officials said.
In a secret recording of a meeting with the undercover agents played in court, Asif told them, "Maybe you can, say, kill someone."
And later, he added, "Maybe it's some political person."
The prosecution said he had been searching for locations of Trump's meetings.
There was also another alleged plot against Trump in 2024.
In the separate case filed that year, prosecutors charged Afghan citizen Farhad Shakeri with murder-for-hire in 2024.
He was charged in absentia as he was out of the US.
IRGC had vowed to avenge the killing of one of its top leaders, Qassim Suleimani, by the US in a 2020 drone attack during Trump's first term.
- IANS
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