An alleged , would-be , Donald Trump , murderer with relationships to , Iran , says he’s been held in a cool solitary confinement body at the notorious , Metropolitan Detention Center , in , Brooklyn , without comfortable clothes, and denied basic services like salt and pepper to time his food.
Asif Merchant , has been locked up in , the Special Administrative Measures, or SAMS, system,  , on the eighth ground of the , Sunset Park , national prison, since his arrest in July because federal officials fear he may go information to , his Persian handlers , or another potential killers on the outside.
His food is passed through a slot, his cell phone’s door is locked out of sight without a supervisor’s supervision, and lawyer meetings are held across thick glass.
But his lawyer,  , Avraham Moskowitz, says the conditions he’s held in go far beyond precaution and “are arbitrary and capricious and designed solely to make Mr. Merchant’s life at the MDC more miserable”.
His lawyer wrote to Judge , Eric Komitee, in a letter to him that the merchant has been prohibited from purchasing sweatshirts or sweatpants from the jail commissary, and his family members have not been permitted to send him one.
” Mr. Merchant’s cell … is very cold and he often comes to attorney-client meetings shivering from cold”, Moskowitz said. ” On the one occasion when , Mr. Merchant , was brought to the courthouse to meet with me and review discovery, he was so cold that he wore my winter coat throughout the meeting so he could warm up”.
At a Brooklyn Federal Court hearing Monday,  , Bureau of Prisons , lawyer , Sophia Papapetru , said that a check on Friday showed his cell’s temperature was 69 degrees, and that he had thermals to wear.
Papapetru attended the hearing virtually, because of “pre-existing conflicts and the risk of inclement weather”, according to a filing by prosecutors.
” I can only describe what I’m experiencing, which is he comes in and he’s chattering, and obviously that’s a real problem”, Moskowitz said.
Papapetru said she was “digging a little deeper” into why sweats aren’t on the commissary list for SAMS inmates.
As for his food, Merchant was getting halal meals, but they made him ill, so he was allowed to switch to a vegetarian menu, the lawyer writes. But MDC staff won’t let him have salt and pepper, or any other spices to make his food bearable.
These restrictions don’t make sense, and they certainly don’t have any security in mind, according to Moskowitz.
When Papapetru claimed Merchant purchased salt and pepper from the commissary on December 19 and that the defense attorney said,” It was brought to him and then immediately taken back, and he was told he’s not entitled to have it,”
Papapetru promised to “look into that”
Outside the courtroom, Merchant’s lawyer said the correction officers offered no hint as to why they’d bring him the seasoning, only to tell him he couldn’t have it.
” There’s no real interaction”, he told the , Daily News. ” He doesn’t speak to anybody all day. They open the slot, they give it to him, or they don’t”.
The jail, which currently houses rap star Sean” Diddy” Combs , as he awaits trial , for sex trafficking and , alleged CEO killer , Luigi Mangione,  , has long been decried for its hellish conditions by judges, defense attorneys and inmates. Earlier this year, two inmates were stabbed to death , just six weeks apart.
Merchant, a 46-year-old Pakinstani national, admitted he was recruited and trained by the , Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp., or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to a memo by Deputy Attorney General , Lisa Monaco , included in Moskowitz’s filing.
According to the memo, he contacted his Iranian handler through messages hidden in gift bags taken by others to Pakistan and through encrypted phone app messages to a family member who served as a go-between. These messages included” countersurveillance and other espionage tactics.”
As part of a multiphase plot that culminates in August or September, Merchant is accused of trying to hire a hit man. A law enforcement source confirmed in August that Merchant’s criminal complaint did not name the politician he wanted to kill, but it did mention Trump as a potential target.
Iranian government officials have long wanted revenge for the death of one of the regime’s generals,  , Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a , U. S.  , drone strike in , Baghdad , on , Jan. 3, 2020 , during Trump’s first term in office.
All Merchant’s training and tradecraft couldn’t stop him from making some dire errors, though — the person he reached out to for help with the plot when he came to the , U. S.  , in April turned out to be a federal informant, and the two “hit men” he tried to hire in June were actually feds, according to court documents.
Merchant, who’s charged with attempted terrorism and murder-for-hire, could face life in prison if convicted.
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