Overview
- The Brooklyn panel found Merchant guilty of terrorism and murder-for-hire after less than two hours of deliberation.
- FBI recordings showed him handing $5,000 to each of two agents he believed were contract killers and discussing a hit in a Queens motel on June 4, 2024.
- Merchant testified that an Iranian Revolutionary Guard contact directed him and floated Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley as potential targets.
- On the stand, he acknowledged knowing the group was designated a terrorist organization and admitted he believed the supposed hitmen were real.
- He was arrested in 2024 before any attack occurred and now faces a potential life sentence at a forthcoming hearing.