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 @ISIDEWITHNewsDaily DiscussionIranPennsylvaniaFBILaw EnforcementAssassination•••8mos ago

Justice Department Charges Man With Iran Murder-For-Hire Scheme

A complaint unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn charges Asif Merchant, 46, of Pakistan, with a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on American soil. Authorities said they foiled the plot before any violence could be attempted — in part because the people Merchant allegedly tried to hire were undercover FBI agents.

According to court documents, Merchant in June met with what he thought were hit men, and told them he would have a number of assignments for them, including an assassination of targets whom he would identify later.

Merchant was arrested, according to court papers, on July 12 — one day before a 20-year-old man in Pennsylvania fired shots during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., grazing Trump’s ear. Investigators do not believe the Iranian plot and the actions by the Pennsylvania gunmen are related, according to law enforcement officials.

The alleged Iranian-backed plot, however, had raised concerns about Trump’s safety in the weeks before the shooting, according to U.S. officials familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

11 Replies

 @CheerfulCowDemocrat from Texas  commented…8mos8MO

And I’m sure all Republicans will be happy to vote to defund the FBI so they can just stop successful investigations like this one to prevent an assassination attempt against the messianic Trump.

 @EnergeticLobbyDemocratfrom Oregon  disagreed…8mos8MO

FBI does remarkably great work! Even though Trump paranoia has him thinking every one is after him!

 @V0terPupRepublicanfrom Missouri  commented…8mos8MO

To listen to the Far Left, Iran is just misunderstood...

They killed 10,000 "dissidents" this year and rape and torture women's activists.

"But they are the good guys we swear cause I met an Iranian refugee once and he was nice!"

 @SimilarImpeachmentGreenfrom Massachusetts  disagreed…8mos8MO

The Orange Felon, the disgusting Trump, killed hundreds of thousands of Americans by playing politics with COVID. Iran is jealous of the Felon.

 @Idealistic1973Veteran from Massachusetts  commented…8mos8MO

Didn’t Israel, once again, just demonstrate that state sponsored assassinations in foreign countries is acceptable?

 @G3rrymanderElandRepublican from Colorado  disagreed…8mos8MO

That would be a no. Terrorists aren't assassinated like political leaders. They're eliminated for what they are.

 @9RXFBYK from California  commented…8mos8MO

Why are we still trying to fix the world’s problems when we have bigger problems at home that our government is ignoring

 @MinorityLillianRepublican from Georgia  commented…8mos8MO

Joe Biden has no idea where he is but maybe Kamala Harris can pay some rappers to tell us why this is a good thing.

 @Pl4tformOliviaRepublican from Tennessee  commented…8mos8MO

Time’s up for the Mullahs. The Israelis just showed that even their revolutionary guard is not reliable anymore. Before taking out Khamenei in his bed they should drop leaflets all over Tehran saying that the time to rise up, overthrow this backwards medieval regime, and become a normal country is nigh.

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

How do you feel about the use of undercover FBI agents in preventing potential crimes, and where should we draw the line between surveillance and privacy?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

Does the origin of a threat (such as being from another country) influence how seriously you think it should be taken, and why?

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…6mos6MO

The Great Progressive Exodus: Inside the Left's War Against Harris

One of the central mysteries of this election has been to what extent the left will defect from Democrats, potentially costing Harris the election with votes for JILL STEIN or CORNEL WEST. Stein is far from concerned about that, NYT’s Matt Flegenheimer captures in a lengthy and dishy profile. For the first time ever, Democrats are launching an ad campaign against a third-party candidate (Stein) over the coming weeks. And even Stein’s own family and friends tell the Times they don’t support her and urged her not to run. Stein, whose “bid can feel precision-engineered to damage Ms. Harris with key subgroups,” pooh-poohs what she calls the “spoiler mythology” and places the blame squarely on Democrats.On college campuses, there are some signs that the left-wing protest movement has quieted from its peak when Biden was in the race — but even a small number of defections from Dems could prove pivotal in a close election.In East Lansing, Zack Stanton reports for POLITICO Magazine that Michigan State student activists furious about the Israel-Hamas war are torn between demanding more from Harris and stopping Trump. In Chapel Hill, WSJ’s Jimmy Vielkind and Cam Pollack find that many pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of North Carolina are nonetheless weighing other issues in their vote, especially abortion rights. But liberal groups are warning that some undecided voters of color still don’t feel like they know enough to be convinced for Harris — and may leave the top of the ticket blank, AP’s Ayanna Alexander reports.

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