Key House Republicans are demanding answers from the Biden administration about the recent arrest of a Pakistani man in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to kill U.S. officials, presumably including former President Donald Trump, and about an apparent string of threats to American political figures emanating from Tehran.
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on Friday morning, the two Republicans — House Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green of Tennessee and Rep. August Pfugler, chair of the panel’s subcommittee on counterterrorism, law enforcement, and intelligence — said they want a briefing from the FBI about the status of the investigation and the threats posed to the U.S. homeland by Iran.
The letter was shared exclusively with The Washington Times ahead of its delivery to Mr. Wray. It comes more than a week after the FBI arrested and charged the Pakistani man, Asif Merchant, in an alleged murder-for-hire plot that Mr. Wray described as being “straight out of the Iranian playbook.”
Federal authorities have described Mr. Merchant as having close ties to Iran, but many key questions, including whether he has direct links to the government in Tehran, remain unanswered. The case also comes against a disturbing backdrop, as Iran is now believed to be targeting both Republican and Democratic political campaigns with cyberattacks and hacking operations, allegedly helping to finance anti-Israel protests on American college campuses, and launching other operations to undermine the American electoral system and fuel societal discord.
The alleged plot is just the latest example of Iran’s apparent willingness to target U.S. officials if given the chance. The Justice Department did not name Mr. Trump in last week’s court filing, but the former president and current GOP White House hopeful is believed to be among those targeted.
Taken together, all of those Iranian actions have left Republicans seeking more information about what the administration is doing about the growing threats.
DOCUMENT: Congressional letter to FBI director about Iranian plot
“The arrest and charging of Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran, for his connection with a failed plot to assassinate a U.S. government official, including potentially former President Donald Trump, serves as another reminder of the serious threats posed by Iran to American citizens,” Mr. Green and Mr. Pfluger said in their letter.
“Merchant’s foiled plot follows another scheme when an Iranian national and member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force orchestrated the attempted assassination of John Bolton, the former U.S. national security advisor. Subsequently, it was revealed that Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state, was a second target of the same plot,” they wrote. “Credible threats by Iran have continued to persist against former Secretary Pompeo, as well as his former top aide, Brian Hook, who served as special representative for Iran during the Trump administration. These plots also include Iran’s efforts to silence those who publicly criticize the regime’s human rights abuses.”
“We have serious concerns about the inadequate … actions taken by the Biden-Harris administration to impose consequences on the Iranian regime, including efforts to protect our national security and American citizens from foreign threats,” they wrote.
Authorities allege that Mr. Merchant arrived in the U.S. in April and quickly recruited a New York man for business dealings. He eventually made clear that those dealings were attempted assassinations. The New York man went to authorities.
U.S. officials suggested the plot was part of Iran’s attempt to retaliate for the 2020 U.S. military drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani — a strike ordered when Mr. Trump, Mr. Pompeo and other officials now targeted for alleged assassination were in office.
An FBI spokesperson told The Times the bureau had no comment on the letter.
Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the case that “the Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security.”
Officials didn’t go into great detail about why they tied the plot to Iran, other than to stress that Mr. Merchant was in Iran just before he came to the U.S., and spoke highly of the Islamic Republic. Some of the alleged ties to Tehran included the fact that Mr. Merchant’s wife and children are there, as well as another wife and more children in Pakistan, the FBI said.
Mr. Green and Mr. Pfluger asked the FBI for a briefing as soon as possible, but no later than Aug. 30.
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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