(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The trial of the man accused of working for Iran in an assassination plot against Donald Trump began this week. On Wednesday, the court heard testimony from an FBI informant who set up the defendant, Pakistani national Asif Merchant, with two undercover agents posing as “hitmen.”
Testifying under the assumed name “Nadeem Ali,” the FBI informant reportedly said he knew Merchant since 2017. Before that, the informant had served as a linguist for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, according to the New York Post.
When Merchant arrived to the U.S. in April 2024—the government let him in despite him being on a terrorist watchlist—the FBI informant said a mutual friend from a mosque asked him to drive Merchant around. The FBI informant said that while he was driving, he noticed unmarked cars following him.
The FBI informant testified in this case Wednesday. He said he previously served as a translator for the US in Afghanistan.
He said he became an informant after being “spooked” that he and Merchant were being followed by unmarked cars. He was paid $20k to “play along” w/ the plot https://t.co/3vxnVRGo4h pic.twitter.com/D7rWGBHLQZ— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) February 27, 2026
“At first, he called 911, getting mostly indifference and a ticket for a suspended driver’s license for his troubles. But he had an FBI agent’s card from back when a family member was killed, so he contacted the feds,” the New York Daily News reported Thursday.
“Ali met FBI agents in Manhattan twice in May 2024, who told him not to worry about being followed, then asked him to report what Merchant told him at future meetings, record him, and play along with anything he asked.”
The informant was reportedly paid $20,000 for his work, which included meeting Merchant in a hotel wired for surveillance on June 4, 2024. It was then and there that Merchant allegedly pitched his plot.
Nearly a week later, the informant arranged for Merchant to meet with the “hitmen,” who were undercover FBI agents.
The plan was ambitious, complex, and highly dangerous. For all the risk involved, one might imagine that Merchant had access to deep pockets. But according to the DOJ, he was only required to scrounge up an “advance” of $5,000.
The problem for Merchant was that he didn’t have $5,000. Instead, he had to beg for it from an unnamed “associate” in the U.S., promising to repay the debt either in Pakistan or through a “hawala” — an informal financial network used in the Greater Middle East and South Asia that relies on trust and personal relationships.
By Friday, June 21, 2024, the $5,000 was ready for pickup. Instead of getting it himself, Merchant acquired the money in a roundabout way: his cousin from overseas called the FBI informant to say that the money was ready. The informant then collected the $5,000 from the unnamed “associate” while Merchant took a bus from Boston to New York for the pickup. The FBI informant met Merchant at a New York City bus station and gave the cash to him. Merchant later went to Manhattan to give the money to the two undercover FBI agents posing as hitmen.
After that meeting, Merchant made flight arrangements to leave Houston for Pakistan on Friday, July 12—the day before Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The FBI raided his home before he could leave for the airport. Merchant allegedly refused to exit his residence for 20 minutes before surrendering.
During Wednesday’s trial, Merchant’s lawyer also cross-examined the informant—asking him about exactly when he saw cars following him, and what he told the FBI during his first four-hour interview with agents.
“[The informant] admitted that he noticed the cars following him as early as November 2023, after he came back from a shooting range in Kingston, N.Y., where he was living at the time, and that the cars would appear even when he wasn’t ferrying Merchant around,” the New York Daily News reported.
Merchant’s trial is expected to last until mid-March.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
