(Ken Silva, Headline USA) On July 12, 2024, the FBI arrested a Pakistani national named Asif Merchant for allegedly trying to hire two undercover agents as “hitmen” to kill Donald Trump.
When the Justice Department announced the case a month later, observers were quick to note the date of Merchant’s arrest—July 12, the day before the Butler assassination attempt—which sparked speculation on social media as to whether he was involved with the Trump shooting.
According to a recent report in the Washington Post, the FBI had similar questions about Merchant immediately after the July 13 shooting—in which gunman Thomas Crooks allegedly fired eight times towards Trump, grazing his ear, killing a firefighter and seriously wounding at least two others in the process.
As Headline USA has detailed, the Merchant case appears to have been a highly controlled FBI sting operation that never posed a danger to Trump. Informants and undercover agents had been monitoring Merchant for months before his arrest, and he was allowed into the country on a “special parole” program that’s used to recruit informants.
Nevertheless, the FBI took the “extraordinary step” of interviewing Merchant without any defense lawyers present in the early hours of July 14, to determine whether he knew Crooks.
Not only has this purported Iranian-sponsored assassin been sitting in solitary for over a year, the FBI reportedly interviewed him in his cell hours after the Butler shooting without any attorneys present.
"Citing a potential threat to public safety, they invoked special… https://t.co/8AwsO18sln pic.twitter.com/npGbHKJhVA
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) July 20, 2025
“Citing a potential threat to public safety, they invoked special authority under Justice Department policy to question him while he was in custody and without some standard legal rights,” the Washington Post reported, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the interview.
Hours after the unconstitutional interview of Merchant, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray briefed President Joe Biden on the matter.
“They were indeed concerned Iran might have recruited the man who fired at Trump during his rally in Butler,” the Post reported. “Wray, appearing by video feed, said they had found no clear link between the shooter and the Iran plot, but they continued to run down every possibility.”
Over a month later, the DOJ reportedly received another tip from an informant overseas that Crooks was linked to Iran. “But after sifting through mountains of classified intelligence obtained through the National Security Agency and foreign allies, national security officials concluded the tip could not be corroborated and was deemed not to be credible,” the Post reported.
WaPo reported that the DOJ received a tip from an overseas informant that linked Crooks to Iran 🙄
I wouldn't be surprised if an FBI report is eventually released with this bullshit tip — which will surely lead to the idiots and disingenuous influencers all sharing it like it's… pic.twitter.com/dniact1XqP— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) July 20, 2025
Nearly a year later, both Biden and Trump’s FBI maintain that Crooks acted alone. Helen Comperatore, the wife of murdered firefighter Corey Comperatore, recently said that the FBI is set to release more evidence about Butler soon.
Meanwhile, Merchant continues to maintain his innocence. He’s been sitting in solitary confinement for over a year now, and hasn’t been able to access crucial evidence, including the recordings of the undercover FBI agents who targeted him.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
