WASHINGTON — U.S. officials including former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley were all potential targets in a foiled Iranian-backed assassination plot earlier this year, according to the Pakistani man charged in connection with the scheme.

An unclassified interview with Asif Merchant, 46, was provided to Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office through whistleblower disclosures, shedding new light on a plan that appeared to involve a potential attack at a political rally, and which U.S. officials believe was part of ongoing Iranian efforts to retaliate for the 2020 killing of military leader Qasem Soleimani.

The interview took place July 17, just four days after Trump narrowly escaped an unrelated attempt on his life when another would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire at a rally near Butler, Pa. Mr. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper and the FBI says there is no evidence he acted in concert with any co-conspirators, foreign or domestic.

Mr. Merchant was arrested July 12 and charged with murder-for-hire.

“Bad actors are determined to wreak havoc on our country, and American political leaders across both parties are sitting squarely in the crosshairs,” Mr. Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement Thursday.

Mr. Merchant earlier this year paid purported hitmen who were actually undercover FBI agents $5,000 in cash in New York as part of the “plot to murder U.S. government officials,”...

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