The US detected an Iranian plot against Trump a few weeks ago – DW – 07/17/2024

United States intelligence agencies had information about a plot to assassinate former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump weeks before last Saturday’s attack, sources familiar with the matter told the Spanish agency Efe on Tuesday (07/16/2024).

However, the sources clarified that there is no connection between this Iranian plan and the assassination attempt on Trump, which took place at a rally in Butler (Pennsylvania), when a 20-year-old man opened fire on the former president, wounding him, biting off the ear and killing one of the people who attended the event.

Although there is no apparent connection, at the time of the attack the Secret Service had beefed up the former president’s security because of threats from Iran, as these sources detailed.

Questions remain as to why the additional measures implemented because of the Iranian plot did not prevent the attacker, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, from climbing to the roof and firing multiple shots before being shot dead by Secret Service agents.

Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, revealed that Iran has been threatening US officials for years to take revenge for the attack, which was ordered by Trump in 2020 and which killed General Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the Quds Force. Guard. Iranian Revolutionary.

“Iran wants revenge”

Because of these threats, former senior Trump administration officials involved in that operation still have escorts. These include former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton.

“As we have said on numerous occasions, we have been monitoring Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years. These threats stem from Iran’s desire to avenge the death of Qassem Soleimani. We consider this national security matter of the highest priority,” Watson stressed, as quoted by the US agency AP.

The spokesperson also assured that no links have been identified between the man who shot Trump and other possible foreign agents.

According to the FBI, which is leading the investigation, the attacker acted alone and used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that his father had legally purchased.

The Secret Service is currently conducting an intense investigation into failures that may have allowed the assassination attempt on Trump, the first such incident since then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

The US government has announced it will conduct an independent investigation into the failings, and has also strengthened Trump’s security detail and provided Secret Service agents to independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.

Iran: “Baseless” claims

For its part, Iran dismissed as “baseless” and “malicious” the claims of US intelligence that the Persian country had prepared a plan to assassinate Donald Trump weeks before last Saturday’s failed attack and that it had nothing to do with it.

A source at the Iranian mission to the United Nations – the only official Iranian channel on US soil, as there are no diplomatic relations there – dismissed the accusations as untrue, although he stressed that “Trump is a criminal who must be persecuted and punished in court”, alluding to the assassination of Soleimani.

“Iran has chosen the legal route to bring (Trump) to justice,” the source concluded.

Last updated at 03:24 CET.

GS(EFE,AP)