Secret Service had information about Trump assassination plot in Iran

TThe US Secret Service has beefed up security around former President Donald Trump after gathering information in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate him, people familiar with the matter said, adding that the threat was separate from the attempt on his life. last weekend.

There is no indication of any link between the Iranian plot and Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old man accused of shooting and wounding Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Sniper teams killed Crooks seconds after he opened fire.

The Iranian threat appeared to be linked to a broader pattern of threats against former Trump administration officials that resulted from the U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, in January 2020, the Biden administration said. Soleimani was assassinated in a drone strike ordered by Trump.

“We have been tracking Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years, going back to the last administration,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement Tuesday. “These threats arise from Iran’s desire to seek revenge” for Soleimani’s death, she said.

See more information: Why the US assassination of Iranian Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani caused the US to prepare for retaliation

Before Saturday’s incident, the White House contacted the Secret Service about the recent Iranian threat, which then shared that information with the Trump campaign, according to one of the people. The Secret Service subsequently increased resources and assets for Trump’s protection, the person said.

But a person familiar with the Trump campaign’s conversations with the Secret Service said agency leaders informed campaign officials about a general increase in threats against the former president, without alerting them to any specific threats linked to individuals. or Iranian groups.

Iran said in a social media post on X that reports of its involvement in a conspiracy against Trump are unfounded.

CNN, which previously reported Iranian conspiracy, said the intelligence about the plan came from a human source. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.

The Secret Service and its chief, Kimberly Cheatle, have been under intense scrutiny since Trump’s extremely difficult decision in Pennsylvania over the weekend. Cheatle said in an interview Monday with ABC News that the agency’s failure was “unacceptable” but that she does not plan to resign. President Joe Biden has called for an independent review of the shooting, which killed one person.

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The US has kept security details of several former Trump administration officials, including former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and John Bolton, who served as national security adviser. In 2022, the Department of Justice charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Bolton.

That same year, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned that Iran was threatening to “conduct terrorist operations within the United States and elsewhere in the world.” He said Iran would face “serious consequences” if anyone was attacked.

“The investigation into Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Trump is active and ongoing,” the NSC’s Watson said in the statement. “At this time, law enforcement authorities report that their investigation has not identified links between the shooter and any accomplice or co-conspirator, foreign or domestic.”