U.S. authorities received intelligence in recent weeks and months about a plot by Iran to assassinate former President Donald Trump which led to the Secret Service increasing his security. However, even this wasn’t enough to prevent would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks from shooting and injuring the former president on Saturday, July 13th.
The information about the Iranian assassination plot was revealed by CNN and other media outlets on Tuesday, July 16th. According to reports, the attempt on Trump’s life carried out by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday was not connected to the threat from Iran.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told CBS:
As we have said many times, we have been tracking Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years, dating back to the last administration. These threats arise from Iran’s desire to seek revenge for the killing of Qassem Soleimani. We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority.
According to CNN, enforcement officials said that “recent intelligence suggested a significant uptick in the threat.”
During his presidency, Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, warned publicly that “those who ordered the murder of General Suleimani” would “be punished.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also a target of the Iranian assassination plot, and two of Trump’s former national security advisers, Robert O’Brien and John Bolton, had previously also been threatened by Iran. Iran’s UN embassy called the most recent accusations “unsubstantiated and malicious,” adding that while it sees Trump as a “criminal” who should be punished in court for ordering Soleimani’s assassination, “Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice.”
The existing threat and the enhanced security for Trump raises questions about the severe security blunders that were made on Saturday. As we reported, the shooter was able to operate despite being detected, and the police being alerted by spectators. The Secret Service was also blamed for not securing the rooftop from which Crooks had a clear view of Trump. The head of the Security Service, which is tasked with protecting the president, former presidents, and their spouses, will testify before the U.S. House of Representatives’ oversight committee next week.
“The men and women on that stage in that moment are the greatest people in the world. I know many of them personally and they’re phenomenal, phenomenal individuals. And I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of it,” Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump said of the Secret Service, but added, “There’d better be real accountability. You can’t have ex-presidents taking bullets through the ear.”
The FBI has not revealed a clear motive for the shooting, despite cracking into Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cellphone, scouring his computer, home and car, and conducting more than a hundred interviews.
