Foreign Gov’t Provided the FBI w/ Evidence about Iran’s Purported Trump Assassination Plot | Headline USA
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department disclosed Wednesday that some of its evidence against Asif Merchant, who is accused of working for Iran in a plot to assassinate Donald Trump, comes from a foreign government—one that wants to remain anonymous.
Merchant, a Pakistani national, was arrested on July 12, 2024—the day before Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania—after allegedly trying to hire two undercover FBI agents posing as hitmen. The DOJ disclosed Wednesday that part of the FBI’s investigation entailed an agent traveling to a foreign country to obtain evidence from a phone owned by one of Merchant’s relatives.
“Among other things, data from the iPhone contains communications between the defendant and his relative regarding the defendant’s efforts to procure the $5,000 the defendant paid to the [undercover agents] as a down payment for his murder-for-hire plot,” the DOJ said.
🚨NEW: The DOJ has disclosed that it will introduce evidence in the “Iranian Trump assassination plot” that was obtained from a foreign government. The DOJ wants to hide the identity of this gov’t. The defendant in this case is Pakistani, and has family there. https://t.co/dTDDpF3laO pic.twitter.com/PGSMx4Rm7p
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) January 8, 2026
The DOJ’s motion asked the presiding judge to prohibit Merchant’s attorneys from examining the FBI about where the phone came from.
“The information is sensitive because it would necessarily reveal the confidential cooperation of a foreign law enforcement partner,” the DOJ said in its motion. “That foreign partner has requested that its involvement in this matter remain confidential and not be made public. Should that partner’s cooperation become public, future cooperation may be hindered, and U.S. law enforcement authorities may lose the ability to obtain the type of evidence received in this case.”
The motion to keep the foreign government’s identity secret was one of several requests made by the DOJ this week. Prosecutors also asked the judge to prohibit Merchant from making an entrapment defense—even though he was under surveillance before he entered the U.S. in March 2024, and an FBI informant introduced him to the undercover agents posing as hitmen.
“Here, the defendant cannot meet the initial burden of production required for an entrapment defense and therefore should be precluded from raising it in his opening statement or otherwise,” the DOJ argued. “The evidence (including audio recordings and video recordings) shows that the defendant initiated the murder-for-hire plot, explained the plot to the [FBI informant], directed the [informant] to connect him with hitmen, and directed the hitmen on what he was looking to hire them to do.”
The DOJ wants to prohibit the man accused of working for Iran to kill Trump from claiming entrapment. This guy was under surveillance before he was in the U.S., and an FBI informant introduced him to the undercover agents posing as hitmen.
The DOJ says he directed everything https://t.co/Qty4TqmogF pic.twitter.com/sMXWLrqwT6— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) January 9, 2026
Additionally, the DOJ wants to keep the jury anonymous in the upcoming trial on the grounds that jurors could be endangered by the Iranian government.
Merchant’s lawyers have yet to respond to the motions. They did file a motion of their own, seeking to prohibit the DOJ from using classified evidence against their client.
“The government currently represents that it will not seek to use any of these non-produced ‘secret’ or ‘classified’ materials at trial,” Merchant’s lawyers said. “To prevent unfair surprise, this Court should preclude it from attempting to do so.”
Merchant has a status hearing scheduled for Jan. 27.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.