US receives intel on Iranian plot to assassinate Trump
Shafaq News/ The United States has received intelligence in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
According to a CNN report on Tuesday, there is no indication that the 20-year-old man who attempted to assassinate Trump last Saturday was connected to this plot. The network quoted an unidentified source stating, "There is no evidence linking Thomas Matthew Crooks, who tried to kill the former president, to the conspiracy."
The incident, which nearly claimed Trump's life, has raised new questions about security lapses during the rally held in Butler, Pennsylvania. Americans are questioning how a 20-year-old managed to access a nearby rooftop to shoot at the former president, injuring his ear.
It remains unclear whether the details of the Iranian threat were shared with Trump’s campaign. The campaign declined to comment on the security specifics, referring all inquiries to the US Secret Service.
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said, on Sunday, that the agency has recently added "resources and protective capabilities for the former president’s security."
Sources revealed that Secret Service officials repeatedly warned Trump’s campaign about the higher risks associated with outdoor rallies.
Trump announced, on Tuesday, that he would hold a campaign rally in Michigan next Saturday, accompanied by J.D. Vance, his running mate.
Trump appeared publicly for the first time after the shooting incident at a Republican Party conference, looking well but with a bandage on his ear where he was hit by the shooter's bullet.
CNN noted that Iran has repeatedly vowed revenge for the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, by the US military in January 2020.
Senior former Trump administration officials who worked in national security have been under heightened security since leaving office.
In August 2022, the Department of Justice charged a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps with plotting to assassinate John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser. US prosecutors said the plot against Bolton was "likely in retaliation" for Soleimani’s killing.
