Justice Dept. Charges Pakistani Man in Alleged Plot to Kill U.S. Leaders

The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had charged a Pakistani man who had recently spent two weeks in Iran with trying to hire a hit man to assassinate political figures in the U.S. Investigators believe that potential targets likely included former President Donald J. Trump, according to a senior law enforcement official.

The man, Asif Raza Merchant, 46, was arrested in New York on July 12, the day before a 20-year-old man, Matthew Crooks, shot at and slightly wounded Mr. Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

Officials said they had no evidence indicating the plot was connected to the shooting in Pennsylvania. But they said the arrest of Mr. Merchant allowed them to disrupt what they characterized as a far-ranging plot that also included stealing computer files from U.S. officials. It also included staging protests against American treatment of Muslim countries.

U.S. intelligence agencies were tracking a potential Iranian assassination plot against Mr. Trump in the weeks before the assassination attempt that prompted the Secret Service to enhance security for the former president before his outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pa. It is not clear if the scheme made public on Tuesday precipitated those moves.

Mr. Merchant, who is believed to be cooperating with investigators since his detention, “orchestrated a plot to assassinate U.S. government officials and steal information on U.S. soil,” prosecutors wrote in documents unsealed on Tuesday.

“After spending time in Iran, Merchant flew from Pakistan to the U.S. to recruit hit men to carry out his scheme,” they said.