'I Had No Other Option:' Accused Pak Terrorist Claims Iranian Spies Hired Him To Kill Trump, Biden

Last Updated:March 05, 2026, 07:53 IST

A Pakistani man claimed Iranian spies recruited him to target Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, in bombshell testimony Wednesday.

A Pakistani man charged with plotting to kill US politicians claimed that Iranian spies recruited him to target Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden in bombshell testimony Wednesday.

Accused terrorist Asif Merchant, 47, claimed before the court that his family was threatened and that he was forced into the plot to save them, according to reports.

“I had no other options. My family was threatened," Merchant told jurors in Brooklyn federal court.

He has been charged with paying two undercover FBI agents posing as hitmen USD 5,000 to carry out the attacks.

Merchant, a former banker with a failed banana business, told the court that his Iranian spy handler ordered him in April 2024 to go to the United States and “maybe to have somebody murdered".

“He did not tell me exactly who it is, but he named three people to me: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley," he stated.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden were the leading candidates in the 2024 presidential election at that time. Nikki Haley, the former South Caroline governor, had withdrawn out of the race just a month earlier.

‘ORDERED TO CARRY OUT MURDER, STEAL DOCS’ 

Asif Merchant, who pleaded not guilty to terrorism and murder-for-hire charges after his August 2024 arrest, claimed that his spy handler ordered him to carry out the murder as well as steal unidentified documents.

His handler, who he named as Mehrdad Yousef, was reportedly a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Merchant said he agreed to work along the plot because Yousef had “put pressure on his Iranian relatives".

He went on to claim Yousef made an unannounced visit outside his Iran-based home and had displayed a weapon during their meetings.

“My family was under threat, and I had to do this," he told the jury, reports suggested.

FBI secret security cameras had nabbed Merchant at a June 2024 meeting inside a cheap Queens motel describing plans to kill a GOP politician. According to details later outlined in court documents, the individual he appeared to be referring to was Donald Trump.

News world 'I Had No Other Option:' Accused Pak Terrorist Claims Iranian Spies Hired Him To Kill Trump, Biden

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