FBI let suspect in plot to kill Trump into U.S. on parole despite terror ties, Iran trip, memos show

The FBI allowed Asif Raza Merchant, the Pakistani man charged with plotting with Tehran to assassinate Donald Trump and others, to enter the U.S. in April with special permission known as “significant public benefit parole” even though he was flagged on a terrorism watchlist and recently traveled to Iran, according to government documents reviewed by Just the News.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force interviewed Merchant, fingerprinted him and inspected the contents of his electronic devices when he arrived at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in Houston, but then let him leave with the special parole that expired on May 11, the memos state.

“Subject was polite and cooperative throughout encounter,” the FBI interview memo reads. “... Subject's notable travel outside of country of citizenship includes a recent trip to Iran.”

Merchant wasn't arrested until July 12, after a confidential human source ascertained he had tried to line up assassins and was planning to leave the United States, the FBI said.

The memos add a new twist to an assassination plot that was uncovered before Trump was shot by a 20-year-old American in Butler, Pa., but not announced until earlier this week. Authorities say they don't believe there is connection between the two assassinations plots.

The FBI declined to comment about the documents obtained by Just the News. But, the JTTF interview summary and immigration records give some rich detail about what the bureau knew before it allowed Merchant to enter the country and what conditions they placed on his entry.

The immigration records from his arrival in Houston on April 13 clearly stated in bright red that he was flagged by the Department of Homeland Security database with the identifier “WATCH LIST” and denoted as a "Lookout Qualified Person of Interest."

Despite direct travel to a country with known terrorist activity, the memo relays that Merchant was “released without incident” into the United States and was “free to travel to desired destination,” which was listed as a family member's home in Texas.

Law enforcement officials who alerted Just the News to the FBI's role in April compared the parole decision to an earlier law enforcement controversy known as the "Fast and Furious" scandal in which federal agents allowed U.S. guns to flow to Mexican cartels in hopes of tracking crimes.

The parole in Merchant's case, the officials said, would allow agents to try to flip Merchant as a cooperator or try to determine why he was coming to the United States and who he might be working with. But such tactics also carried a risk that agents might lose track of him, the officials said. 

The records show that Merchant was allowed to stay in the country beyond the May 11 expiration date for his parole. 

While there is no statutory or regulatory definition of a public benefit parole, according to the DHS, a variety of factors can be used to determine whether a subject qualifies, and the status is extended based on a benefit to the public, not the individual.

“Parole based on significant public benefit includes, but is not limited to, law enforcement and national security reasons or foreign or domestic policy considerations,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website says.

The Justice Department says Merchant tried to hire an individual for an assassination plot shortly after he entered the country in April and that individual become a confidential informant for law enforcement after reporting the contact.

Merchant reportedly asked the informant about various methods to carry out an assassination attempt.

He also told the confidential source that the planned assassination would occur after he left the United States and that he would communicate with the individual to relay instructions. However, law enforcement intercepted Merchant before he left the country. 

After the charges against Merchant were announced earlier this week, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency issued a new warning Wednesday to its field offices that Iran or its proxy groups may try to transport “operatives, money or materials” across both the southern and northern U.S. borders to carry out attacks on the United States.

In the memo, which was obtained by Just the News, the CBP’s Office of Field Operations directed agency personnel to take a “heightened posture due to ongoing security threats,” including against possible attacks on the United States mirroring the recent Iran-backed Hezbollah rocket attack on an Israeli town in the Golan Heights.

The memo also warned that heightened tensions across the Middle East due to Israel’s retaliation for the Golan Heights strike – the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital – increased the risk of a terror attack in the United States.

The memo specifically urged CBP personnel to implement “hardening measures” at ports of entry such as the airport in Houston where Merchant arrived and was subsequently released into the country.

Merchant was ultimately arrested on July 12 as he attempted to make arrangements to leave the country.

Prosecutors unsealed a complaint against him earlier this week, charging him with organizing a “murder-for-hire” plot in a scheme to assassinate U.S. politicians or government officials. Justice Department and FBI officials said Merchant was working “on behalf of others overseas” and pointed the finger at Iran.

“This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s charges allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI.”  

Though Trump, a former GOP president running for reelection in 2024, was not named in the complaint directly, sources confirmed to ABC News that he was one of the intended targets.

The revelation that Merchant was stopped at a port of entry but permitted to enter the United States, even with terror ties, follows a report from the House Judiciary Committee that found the Biden administration’s DHS released 99 individuals on the terrorist watch list into the country between fiscal years 2021 and 2023 and has 34 others in custody who have not yet been removed.

During those years, Border Patrol encountered individuals from 36 different countries with an active terrorist presence, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Yemen, the report says.

In June, eight men from Tajikistan were arrested in coordinated sting operations across the United States because their suspected ties to the Islamic State terror group. All eight of the suspects crossed the southern border, but their criminal background checks were clean when they crossed, NBC News reported.