"Merchant was arrested on July 12th, nearly three months after he was admitted into the US. The FBI had eyes on him during this time, and utilized numerous undercover agents, who Merchant thought were hitmen he was hiring," Melugin wrote. According to reports, Merchant was trying to hire assassins to kill Trump on behalf of the Iranian government. He allegedly explained his plot involved multiple criminal schemes: stealing documents or USB drives from a target's home; planning a protest; and killing a politician or government official. He met with purported hitmen, who were actually undercover U.S. law enforcement officers, in New York. He allegedly told them they would receive instructions on who to kill either the last week of August or the first week of September after Merchant had departed America. He paid them $5,000. Analysts are now wondering if Thomas Crooks, the attempted assassination suspect who was immediately taken down by Security Service, had been in communication with Merchant or any other people hiring to kill the Republican presidential nominee. News reports indicated that Crooks had multiple cell phones and encrypted accounts communicating with people in other countries. Meanwhile, former FBI agent Steve Friend also told bestselling author and journalist Lee Smith that it's unusual that Merchant "was in the country for several months before they executed the arrest." He also suggested the feds did not have any proof Merchant had connections to the Iranian government or that he had intentions of targeting Trump before he came to America. "Why would the FBI invent a plot to kill Trump?" Smith stated. "By claiming the Iranians are responsible for this effort deflects attention from the fact that the real two would-be assassins, Crooks and Ryan Routh, are Democratic Party supporters. Further, says Friend, it boosts FBI statistics. 'If they had just been aware of some plot and brought it to light then it would have been a disruption of a domestic terrorist plot. But because they arrested him, it's dismantlement, which is a very rare and very valuable statistic.'" (Related: STAGED: FBI "stopped" an alleged assassination plot orchestrated by a suspected terrorist who entered the U.S. via a special permission given by the bureau itself.)NEW: Per multiple federal law enforcement sources to me and @davidspunt, the Pakistani national w/ Iranian ties who was arrested by the FBI for plotting an assassination on US soil was admitted into the US via parole for "significant public benefit" when CBP encountered him at… pic.twitter.com/skWKXxlySa
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 7, 2024