If domestic threats against Donald Trump weren’t enough, a Pakistani terror suspect pleaded not guilty yesterday to assassination attempt charges of the former president.
A Brooklyn federal court charged Asif Merchant with attempting to assassinate Trump as part of a murder-for-hire conspiracy tied to the Iranian government. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement,
The Justice Department will not tolerate Iran’s efforts to target our country’s public officials and endanger our national security.
He continued,
As these terrorism and murder for hire charges against Asif Merchant demonstrate, we will continue to hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans.
Merchant’s court hearing happened on the same day that Ryan Wesley Routh appeared in a Florida court for possession of firearms related to the assassination attempt at Trump’s golf course on Sunday. The two parallel events appear coincidental as of this reporting.