Man accused of Iran-backed Trump assassination plot compared his plan to Butler shooting: FBI
A Pakistani man convicted on Friday of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump and other politicians told an FBI agent he thought Iran “was responsible” for the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Asif Merchant, 47, told the FBI agent, Jacqueline Smith, that the incident “was the same thing he was sent here to do,” Smith testified during Merchant’s trial. Merchant told jurors the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent him on a “mission” to kill U.S. politicians, including by telling him to attend a Republican rally.
Merchant was arrested July 12, 2024, one day prior to the shooting in Butler, where Thomas Crooks fired several shots into a rally crowd, killing one and grazing Trump’s ear.
The FBI has said repeatedly that it found no evidence that Crooks had co-conspirators or that any foreign actors were involved in the incident.
Merchant, who was convicted by a jury of murder-for-hire and attempt to commit terrorism, testified that Trump was not his only target, telling jurors then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley were also on his list. He claimed that he only took part in the plot because Iran’s IRGC warned it would target his family.
FORMER IRANIAN MINISTER PRAISES TRUMP ASSASSINATION FATWA AS DAUGHTER LIVES IN NEW YORK
“I had no other options,” Merchant said. “My family was threatened.”
Merchant now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. His sentence will be determined at a later hearing.
Merchant was arrested after he was recorded on camera outlining a plot on a napkin to kill a politician with a person who turned out to be an FBI informant. Federal prosecutors showed video during the trial of Merchant speaking to the informant. The prosecutors said Merchant also tried to hire two hit men and pay them $5,000, but the men turned out to be federal agents posing as assassins.
Smith, the FBI agent who met with Merchant after his arrest, said that Merchant never conveyed that he feared for his family. Merchant said he wanted to do intelligence work and be paid for it, Smith said.
TRUMP DECLARES ‘I GOT HIM BEFORE HE GOT ME’ AFTER IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER KILLED IN STRIKE
The FBI agent also said Merchant was told by an Iranian handler to attend a Republican political rally to scope out security but that Merchant was worried about being identified, and so he watched the rally online instead.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Merchant’s defense team told jurors their client, who has two wives, was a family man and cared deeply about his faith and that he intentionally acted carelessly because he wanted to be caught.
In their closing arguments, defense lawyers said Merchant had his hand forced in the operation, thinking his family would be harmed if he did not cooperate. Additionally, the lawyers cited several instances where they said Merchant’s actions as an intelligence operator were little more than incompetent.
After the strikes, how would the US secure Iran’s enriched uranium?
When War Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked recently whether U.S. forces would ever move to secure enriched uranium reportedly stored at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear complex, he declined to say, citing operational security.
The exchange highlighted a question the U.S. and Israel’s air campaign alone cannot answer: even if U.S. strikes degrade Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, who would physically secure the enriched uranium, and how?
Iran is believed to possess a significant stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, near weapons-grade. That material could theoretically be used in multiple nuclear devices if further refined.
Moving from 60% to weapons-grade 90% enrichment requires additional processing, and weaponization would involve further technical steps. But analysts say the more immediate issue is physical control of the material itself.
“If the U.S. wants to secure Iran’s nuclear materials, it’s going to require a massive ground operation,” Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, told Fox News Digital.
Davenport said the highly enriched uranium believed to be stored at Isfahan appears to be deeply buried and contained in relatively mobile canisters. Securing it would likely require locating the full stockpile, accessing underground facilities and safely extracting or downblending the material.
“It’s not even clear the United States knows where all of the uranium is,” she said, noting that the mobility of storage containers raises the possibility that some material could be moved or dispersed.
The administration repeatedly has said preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains a central objective of Operation Epic Fury.
“Ultimately, this issue of Iran’s nuclear pursuit and their unwillingness through negotiations to stop it is something President Trump has said for a long time needs to be dealt with,” Hegseth said.
Senior administration officials have argued that Iran sought to build up its ballistic missile arsenal in part to create a deterrent shield — enabling Iran to continue advancing its nuclear program while discouraging outside intervention.
So far, however, the bulk of U.S. strikes have focused on degrading missile launchers, air defenses and other conventional military targets.
Experts note that dismantling missile systems may reduce Iran’s ability to shield a potential nuclear breakout. But physically controlling enriched uranium itself presents a separate and more complex challenge.
Airstrikes versus physical control
Defense officials have acknowledged that degrading nuclear infrastructure from the air is different from safely managing or securing nuclear material.
Airstrikes can destroy centrifuges, power systems and support buildings. But enriched uranium stored underground may remain intact unless it is physically secured, removed or verifiably downblended.
Striking or extracting nuclear material also carries safety risks that military planners must weigh.
If storage casks containing uranium hexafluoride gas were compromised, the material could pose chemical toxicity risks to personnel entering the site without proper protective equipment. Analysts say a conventional strike is unlikely to trigger a nuclear detonation, but dispersal of material could create localized hazards and complicate recovery efforts.
Chuck DeVore, a former Reagan-era defense official who worked on nuclear issues, argued that directly targeting the stockpile may not be a priority under current battlefield conditions.
“You don’t want to release the material into the surrounding areas and cause radioactive contamination,” DeVore said, adding that deeply buried facilities are difficult to reach from the air.
DeVore also downplayed the immediacy of a breakout scenario, arguing that further enrichment, weaponization and delivery would be difficult to execute undetected amid sustained U.S. air operations.
Even if Iran were able to further enrich uranium, he said, assembling a deliverable weapon under active military pressure would present significant technical and operational hurdles.
Still, DeVore acknowledged that long-term control of the uranium would ultimately require a political resolution inside Iran and some form of outside oversight.
What would securing it require?
Nonproliferation experts say securing enriched uranium generally involves more than military force. It requires verified accounting of the material, sustained access to storage sites and either removal or downblending to lower enrichment levels suitable for civilian use.
Davenport said internationally monitored downblending would be the safest option if political conditions allow.
“The IAEA remains the best place to go back into Iran to monitor the sites, to try to track down and account for the enriched uranium,” she said, describing downblending as a relatively straightforward technical process compared to attempting to extract and transport highly enriched material in a contested environment.
Both pathways — physical seizure or internationally monitored reduction — depend on conditions that do not currently exist.
Administration officials argue that dismantling Iran’s missile network weakens Iran’s ability to shield a nuclear breakout and reduces the immediate threat to U.S. forces and regional allies.
But suppressing missiles and controlling enriched uranium are separate challenges.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Destroying infrastructure can slow or disrupt a program. Physically locating, accounting for and securing nuclear material requires sustained access, reliable intelligence and — ultimately — political conditions that allow it.
For now, the administration maintains that Iran will not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. How the enriched uranium itself would be secured remains a question without a public answer.
Former Iranian minister praises Trump assassination fatwa as daughter lives in New York
While former Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki praised in a Persian-language television interview the issuance of a fatwa calling for the killing of U.S. President Donald Trump, his daughter is living in New York City with her husband — an Iranian diplomat serving at the permanent mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, Fox News digital confirmed.
Mottaki, who served as Iran’s foreign minister from 2005 to 2010 under then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and remains a prominent figure in Iran’s political establishment, said Iran’s Supreme Leader had determined that Trump was a criminal and suggested Iran’s judiciary should act, according to a video reviewed by Fox News Digital.
He also described as a “brave and significant act” a religious ruling calling for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mottaki’s daughter, Zahra Assadi Nazari, is married to Nasser Assadi Nazari, who is listed as a third counselor at Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York.
The situation echoes previous controversies involving relatives of senior Iranian officials living in the United States.
In January, Emory University dismissed Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of Iranian official Ali Larijani, from a teaching position after protests over her employment at the university’s medical school.
On Sunday, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Saeid Iravani, sparred with U.S. envoy Mike Waltz during a Security Council session, telling the American ambassador to “be polite,” a remark that drew a sharp rebuke.
MIKE WALTZ TURNS TABLES ON IRANIAN ENVOY AT HEATED UN MEETING
“I have one word only: I advise the representative of the United States to be polite,” Iravani said during the meeting.
Moments later, Waltz responded: “Frankly, I’m not going to dignify this with another response, especially as this representative sits here in this body representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people and imprisoned many more simply for wanting freedom from your tyranny.”
Fox News Digital contacted Iran’s mission to the United Nations asking whether it could confirm the relationship. The mission declined to comment.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital also requested comment from the U.S. Mission to the United Nations regarding Mottaki’s remarks and the broader implications of a former senior Iranian official appearing to endorse violence against the sitting U.S. president while his immediate family resides in New York. No response was received by the time of publication.
Israel strikes slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s underground military bunker
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday announced that it had dismantled former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s underground bunker in Tehran.
“The underground compound was created by the regime as a base for advancing military activities and its extremist ideologies against the State of Israel and the Western world,” the IDF said. “It spanned multiple streets in the heart of Tehran and contained numerous entrances and meeting rooms for senior members of the Iranian terrorist regime.”
Israel later released an illustrated video which showed a number of entry points throughout Tehran with tunnels leading to the underground bunker.
The fortified compound was directly under where Khamenei and other regime leaders were situated on Saturday morning when almost 50 of them were killed in under 50 seconds during the launch of Operation Epic Fury, a senior Israeli official told Fox News.
IRAN POSTPONES TEHRAN FAREWELL CEREMONY FOR KHAMENEI WHERE LARGE CROWDS WERE EXPECTED TO GATHER
The official said that Khamenei spent millions of dollars and a number of years building the bunker, which he did not use on the morning of the strike. Sources familiar with the intelligence say that Khamenei believed no one had the guts to strike him.
The senior Israeli official told Fox News that Khamenei’s confidence was partially thanks to an Israeli-American deception plan that included messaging, signals and public statements by President Donald Trump that suggested nothing immediate was coming. Top IDF commanders even went home on Friday night, hours before the strike, in an attempt to deceive Iranian leadership.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Khamenei was killed on the first day of Operation Epic Fury after ruling the Islamic Republic for more than 30 years. During that time, he oversaw harsh internal crackdowns, including the most recent one in January, which targeted Iranian protesters, as well as international confrontations.