Vape pen on a napkin: Secret FBI video reveals alleged Iran-linked Trump assassination plot

Key Highlights

• How will it die?” Asif Merchant is heard saying in the footage, according to testimony presented as his trial opened on charges of attempted terrorism and related offences.
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• Mojtaba Khamenei emerges in Iran succession debate Prosecutors said Merchant, 47, met the supposed hit men in June 2024, who were in fact undercover FBI agents, after asking intermediary Nadeem Ali to arrange the killing.
• The video shows Merchant using a vape pen and other items on a napkin to demonstrate how a shooting at a campaign rally would be followed by a staged protest to create confusion and allow the attacker to escape.
• “I was shocked,” Ali told the anonymous jury, describing the conversations he secretly recorded for the FBI after growing suspicious of Merchant’s requests.