Trump security boosted weeks ago over Iran plot to kill him

WASHINGTON, US

The United States Secret Service boosted security around former President Donald Trump after picking up intelligence in recent weeks of 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.

A Secret Service agent stands behind former President and 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump 

There’s no indication of any link between the Iranian plot and Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old man accused of shooting at 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 stemmed 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, dating 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 killing Soleimani, she said.

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 the agency’s leaders informed campaign officials in passing of a general increase in threats against the former president without making them aware of any specific threats tied to Iranian individuals or groups.

Iran said in a social media posting on X that the reports of its involvement in a plot against Trump are baseless.

CNN, which earlier reported the Iranian plot, said that the intelligence on 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 come under intense scrutiny since Trump’s extremely close call in Pennsylvania over the weekend. Cheatle said in an interview Monday on ABC News that the agency’s failure was “unacceptable” but that she doesn’t plan to resign. President Joe Biden called for an independent review of the shooting, which killed one person.

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

That same year, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned that Iran was threatening “to carry out terror operations inside the United States and elsewhere around the world.” He said Iran would face “severe consequences” if anyone was attacked.

“The investigation of 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 has reported that their investigation has not identified ties between the shooter and any accomplice or co-conspirator, foreign or domestic.”