A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged in the United States in connection to a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
FBI investigators believed that former president Donald Trump and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot, CNN reported, citing a US official.
Asif Merchant, 46, faces a charge of murder for hire in New York federal court.
A 20-year-old gunman wounded the former Republican president and current White House candidate at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The gunman opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle just minutes after he began speaking at the campaign event.
Perched on the roof of a nearby building, he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper less than 30 seconds after firing the first of eight shots.
Investigators concluded the young man, who lived in a town about 80 kilometres from Butler, acted alone and were not able to identify any strong ideological or political leanings.
Two rally attendees were seriously wounded and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter, Corey Comperatore, was shot dead.
Former US Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle admitted to Congress that she and her agency failed and subsequently resigned.
Last week, the US Secret Service’s acting director said that police in Pennsylvania had warned that there was a man with a gun on a roof before the July 13 attempted assassination but the message did not reach its agents on time.
Local authorities and Secret Service agents were using different communication channels, which prevented the warning from getting through before the assailant opened fire on the Republican presidential candidate.
