A Pakistani national with ties to Iran who was arrested in the U.S. on suspicion of plotting a political assassination has been allowed into the U.S. on immigration parole citing “significant public interest,” multiple federal law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told Fox News.
In April, Asif Merchant, 46, flew to Houston, where he was confronted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. Law enforcement sources said the FBI supported his parole, citing “national security interests.”
The FBI had been watching Merchant since before he arrived in the U.S. and needed him to enter the country to be arrested. Had they arrested him at customs, they would not have been able to gather evidence and intelligence about his plot, the people said.
Trump administration security official: Iran is ‘on the offensive’ for US, Israel
Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of plotting to assassinate a politician in the U.S. Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Merchant was allowed into the U.S. on immigration parole. (Ministry of Justice)
Fox News reported that the tactic is not uncommon.
According to federal prosecutors, Marchant was arrested on July 12 while attempting to leave the country.
The Justice Department said the suspect flew to New York City a few days after arriving in Houston and worked with a suspected hit man to carry out a murder-for-hire plot in August or September.
The hitman contacted the FBI and became a confidential law enforcement source.
Merchant may have been targeting former President Trump. The plot has no connection to the shooting of Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
Merchant told authorities he had a wife and children in Iran and Pakistan. The Iranian government has neither admitted nor denied involvement in the murder-for-hire plot.
Hamas founder’s son slams Biden-Harris administration for ‘total denial’ in Middle East
Merchant flew to Houston, where he was encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. (Getty Images)
“The Department of Justice has filed multiple cases against individuals working on behalf of the Iranian government to kill Americans on United States soil,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday, “But as I said last week, we expect these threats will continue and that these cases will not be the last.”
Security concerns about Trump and his former advisers have been raised before over possible Iranian retaliation for the 2020 airstrike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Asif Merchant, 46, is pictured here during a meeting with intelligence sources. (Ministry of Justice)
Click here to get the FOX News app
“We have not received any report on this matter from the US government,” the Iranian mission to the UN told Fox News Digital this week, “but it is clear that the methods in question are inconsistent with the Iranian government’s policy to legally prosecute those responsible for the murder of General Soleimani.”
