Fleece Jacket: The Assassination Plot against Trump
Amid all the other excitement yesterday, EDNY revealed the arrest, on July 12, of an assassination plot believed to target Donald Trump. A Pakistani man with ties to Iran, Asif Merchant, pitched someone in the US — referred to only as Confidential Source — in April on what purported to be a clothing import business, with an opportunity to earn $100,000. The complaint suggests that Merchant had reason to believe CS had committed crimes in the past. But when meeting in person on June 3 about the business, Merchant described that the business involved killing.
On or about June 3, 2024, MERCHANT flew from Texas to LaGuardia Airport in New York. The CS picked up MERCHANT from the airport and drove him to a hotel in Nassau County, New York. While at the hotel, MERCHANT told the CS that the opportunity he had for the CS was not a one-time opportunity and would be ongoing. MERCHANT then made a “finger gun” motion with his hand, indicating that the opportunity was related to a killing. MERCHANT subsequently took the CS’s cellphone and put it in a drawer for security reasons, so they could discuss the plan. MERCHANT stated that he would give the CS more details about the plan the next day but that he needed the CS to arrange a meeting for MERCHANT to meet hitmen in New York.
The complaint is coy about when the CS got the Feds involved. But by the next day, the FBI had set up cameras that captured Merchant drawing up his plan on a napkin. And when CS introduced Merchant to people he believed to be hitmen on June 10, they were really undercover Feds.
On June 13, Merchant wrote up a code for CS, describing each of three types of crimes — stealing documents, starting a protest as cover, and assassinating someone — as different kinds of tops, with fleece jacket signifying the assassination.
Merchant must have made last minute plans to leave the country on July 12, because he was arrested even before the FBI wrote up the complaint on July 14 (the Texas docket describing the Houston arrest must still be sealed). Merchant seemed to be recruiting multiple people in the US, so I assume this all remained sealed for a month to provide the FBI opportunity to track down others.
According to the detention memo, Merchant refused to let the FBI in for 20 minutes, so he may have deleted evidence (though not the paper on which he wrote his fleece jacket code).
Notably, when the FBI arrived at his residence to execute the arrest as well as a search warrant for the residence, Merchant refused to exit his residence for approximately 20 minutes after the FBI announced their presence and the search warrant.
Which makes for some pretty eerie timing, given Thomas Crooks’ shooting of Trump on July 13.
Can’t wait to hear magats claim he’s related to Judge Merchan(t) so he needs to recluse.
The FBI is not known for waiting twenty minutes, after announcing themselves, to execute a search warrant. That seems eerie, given that the crimes they were investigating, and for which they had probable cause to search the premises, involved potential assassinations of American political figures.
That stood out to me, as well.
Given that the subject is a foreigner, introduced to undercover feds on 10 June isn’t it likely that his premises and communications devices were subject to intrusive covert surveillance thereafter?
True. But they also probably wanted to avoid suicide or killing him.
The docket tells us nothing about what has been going on with him in the last month.
I expect Jim Jordan to start demanding torture any minute.
I am once again struck by how US police forces insist on arresting people inside their home. I am aware that local police prefers this as it makes civil assest forfeiture easier, but that shouldn’t apply to the FBI? Where I’m from they would usually arrest you as you leave the house, although most arrests are made by asking you to come into the police station.
This is the fearsome Iranian Death to America machine? So far, it looks just barely more competent than the nitwits who contact hitman.com or whatever that spoof site is called.
Underestimating the potential for evil is one reason Trump won in 2016. It doesn’t do to make it a habit.
A high percentage of the assassins who have had success were barely functional: Bremer, Hinckley, perhaps Crooks.
Reliable firearms can make up for deficiencies in planning.
Non-responsive to my point.
See:
“Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.”
~Donald J Trump
January 3, 2020
This angered Iranians, to say the least.
From a DOJ news release:
“Merchant has stated that he has a wife and children in Iran and a wife and children in Pakistan.
The FBI is investigating the case.”
They probably mean the assassination plot, not the bigamy case.
And why hasn’t the mighty tRump wurlitzer yet claimed that this guy MUST be related to the fraudulent business records judge (I refuse to call it the hush-money case).
Wow. This story is uh, weird
Merchan to FBI Agents: ‘Please wait 20 minutes while I destroy evidence?’
There have been quite a number of such incidents in recent memory. Trump: ‘Stay out of hidden compartments in my bedroom.’
Secret Service: ‘Sorry we wiped all our phones after Jan 6.’
I’m sure there are nuances I am missing.
The economics of this murder contract makes no sense as a business transaction. This is an example of high risk low reward. If caught alive the legal fees will be burned in a flash. Then if convicted you get life in prison or execution.
Out of curiosity, I would like to question the pissants who think that they could pull something like this off on the cheap.
We don’t know if the accused was a middle man who tried to skim off the bigger portion of funding they were allotted by hiring on the cheap.
Surely the key figure is the CS, who must have been trusted as a contact and fixer for Asif Raza Merchan by him and the people behind him.
This is quite an elaborate trap to set up to capture Merchant
A banker in Karachi by background.
Reports of his travel between Pakistan and Iran seem to begin in 2017
He is reported to have been in the US between Nov 2023 and December 2023 having been in Iran the previous month. His travel to US in 2024 was also preceded by a month in Iran
https://www.thenews.com.pk/amp/1217750-no-criminal-record-of-asif-merchant-found-in-pakistan-ctd
The report also notes he was dismissed from his position in banking on the grounds of corruption
I agree with freebird. This doesn’t make sense as a serious attempt to kill the Chief Executive of the United States. These days, that would be a suicide mission, as the counter-snipers in Butler, PA demonstrated so vividly. The shooters heirs wouldn’t benefit much from $100k.
(Tinfoil hat on)
I mean, if all you need to do is find a few gun owning, radicalized young white males and plant the seeds of some conspiracy so that they will try to shoot a politician…I imagine it wouldn’t take a lot of effort or time. What better way to carry out a plot to kill politicians or enemies, than to get the assassins from the population at large? That shit feeds itself after a while.
Russia’s been amazingly successful at turning Americans and dividing people here, why not other countries as well?
(Tinfoil hat off)