Iran has made it “clear” that it is trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump, as well as members of his administration – and the current Biden administration – as payback for the killing of an Iranian general and other hardline policies, U.S. officials and lawmakers said Wednesday.
The comments came after Trump’s dramatic disclosure Tuesday night that he had been briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence about Tehran’s “real and specific threats” against him.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said he hadn’t seen “any indication” Iran had anything to do with the two alleged assassination plots against Trump, including one that drew blood at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July.
“But I think there is also clear evidence out there that Iran has made it clear that they intend to − if they could, they would try to assassinate the former president,” Rounds said. “And they’ve talked about assassinating other senior members in leadership.”
Sean Savett, a spokesman at the National Security Council, confirmed the Iranian threat.
“As we have said many times, we have been tracking Iranian threats against former President Trump and former Trump administration officials for years, dating back to the last administration,” Savett said in a statement to USA TODAY. “These threats arise from Iran’s desire to seek revenge for the killing of Qasem Soleimani,” the Iranian general slain in a 2020 drone strike ordered by then-President Trump.
Iran has denied trying to assassinate U.S. officials, but the Justice Department has launched numerous investigations and prosecutions into such efforts, including into plots against former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton. U.S. officials have been issuing public warnings about Iran’s desire for vengeance since shortly after Soleimani was killed.
Trump himself acknowledged the ongoing concern Wednesday in a post on X that garnered 19.9 million views by noon.
“Big threats on my life by Iran. The entire U.S. Military is watching and waiting. Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again,” Trump wrote. “Not a good situation for anyone. I am surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than I have ever seen before.”
In his post, Trump thanked Congress “for unanimously approving far more money to Secret Service” for his protective detail. “Nice to see Republicans and Democrats get together on something,” he wrote. “An attack on a former President is a Death Wish for the attacker!”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the ranking Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, told USA TODAY: “I think what (the Trump campaign) said is they’ve been briefed on a real, credible and specific threat. Which they’re not exaggerating.”
The warning comes six weeks after the Justice Department, without naming an intended victim, charged a Pakistani national with ties to Iran in an alleged plot to assassinate a U.S. politician or government official, potentially in response to Soleimani’s death. And in July, CNN reported the Secret Service had beefed up security for Trump over concerns of an Iranian plot.
A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, acknowledged briefing Trump but declined to address any specifics. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung offered few details.
It was still unclear Wednesday what prompted the Trump briefing and what the former president was told – including whether any of the longstanding concerns had intensified based on new intelligence.
Trump’s campaign and ODNI officials had no further comment on Wednesday.
But Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC News Wednesday morning the government was tracking “an ongoing threat by Iran against a number of senior officials, including former government officials like President Trump, and some people who are currently serving the administration.”
“The Iranian desire and plotting to assassinate Donald Trump is the single gravest foreign threat to an American leader in our history,” Rubio said, citing a video posted by the Iranian regime in January 2022 depicting the assassination of Trump on a golf course as revenge for killing of Soleimani.
He called it “probably the gravest example of election interference we’ve ever seen.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., did not respond directly when asked if he’d been briefed by ODNI on the information the Trump campaign says it received. But he said his committee has been updated “regularly” by the FBI on Iranian threats to the fomer president.
“The Iranian regime still has a number of current and former officials that they are trying to exact revenge on from the Soleimani death,” he said.
After Trump was shot and wounded in the right ear at his July 13 campaign rally, the White House confirmed the broad outlines of a separate threat against him from Iran.
Source » usatoday