Hidden camera video outlines alleged Iran-linked plot to kill Trump

The operative who prosecutors say tried to hire two men to kill Trump for $5,000 upfront demonstrated the plan by placing a vape pen on a napkin to signify his “target,” the hidden camera video released by the New York Post shows.

“This is the target. How will it die?” Asif Merchant said in the meeting.

Merchant, 47, a Pakistani national who entered the United States in April 2024, is accused of attempting to recruit individuals he believed were hired killers.

Prosecutors said he offered cash payments and discussed staging a protest near a campaign rally to create confusion and allow the attackers to escape.

• 

  Iranian official says Trump could face drone attack at Mar-a-Lago

Although Trump was not explicitly named in the recorded exchanges, court documents show that he – then a leading candidate – was the intended target, the Post reported.

Prosecutors allege Merchant believed Trump’s policies had harmed Muslim-majority countries and acted with backing from individuals allegedly connected to Iran.

The scheme began to unravel when a Pakistani-American acquaintance, a former US Army linguist, alerted authorities after growing suspicious of Merchant’s plans. The FBI then arranged undercover meetings that were secretly recorded.

Merchant was arrested in July 2024 at an airport while attempting to leave the United States, authorities said.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges including murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence.

In November 2024, the US Department of Justice unsealed criminal charges regarding a thwarted plot by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to assassinate Donald Trump prior to the 2024 presidential election.

• 

  Iranian clerical call to kill Trump spreads, attracts alleged fundraising

Trump has been a target for assassination threats since he ordered the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in Iraq.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said the agency has been unable to verify the status and location of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium since military strikes by the United States and Israel hit several nuclear sites in June.

The IAEA said it has not been granted access to Iran’s four declared enrichment facilities and has therefore lost “continuity of knowledge” over previously declared nuclear material at affected sites. As a result, it cannot verify whether Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities or confirm the current size, composition or whereabouts of its enriched uranium stockpile.

Grossi said his agency “will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful” until Iran improves its cooperation.

Inspectors have observed regular vehicular activity at bombed sites, including the underground complex at Isfahan and the enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow, through satellite imagery. However, Grossi said that without on-site inspections the agency cannot determine the nature or purpose of those activities.

According to the IAEA, Iran holds 440.9 kg (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Grossi has previously said that while such material does not mean Iran has a nuclear weapon, it could, in theory, be sufficient for multiple bombs if further enriched.

The warning comes as Iran and the United States continue indirect talks over Tehran’s nuclear activities. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.

Some of Iran’s most highly enriched uranium, enriched to up to 60% purity, was stored in an underground area at its nuclear site in Isfahan, the UN nuclear watchdog said in a confidential report seen by Reuters on Friday.

It is the first time the International Atomic Energy Agency has specified where uranium enriched to that level, close to weapons grade, has been kept.

The entrance to the tunnel complex was hit in US and Israeli military strikes in June, diplomats said, but the underground facility appears to have remained largely unharmed.

Rasoul Falahati, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative in Gilan province in northern Iran, said on Friday that the United States fears Iran’s resilience and its cyber, drone and missile capabilities, and warned of a tougher response if it takes action.

“If the enemy makes a mistake, we will give them a lesson harsher than the 12-day war,” he said, according to state media.

Falahati added that Israel fears war more than others because it knows "it would face difficult conditions" in any conflict.

At least nine US Air Force refueling aircraft arrived overnight at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, according to footage and analysts tracking open-source flight data, the Times of Israel reported.

The report said there are now at least 14 US refueling tankers at the airport, as part of a broader US military buildup in the region.

It added that 11 F-22 stealth fighter jets and support aircraft landed this week at Ovda Airbase in southern Israel.

The tankers could support US fighter jets aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which is heading toward Israel’s northern coast, the report said.