2024-07-18 02:30:19
US intelligence agencies obtained information about an Iranian plot to assassinate former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump (2017-2021) weeks before last Saturday’s attack, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to EFE.
These sources stressed that there is no link between this Iranian plan and the attempted assassination of Trump, which occurred on Saturday at a rally in Butler (Pennsylvania), when a 20-year-old man shot the former president, wounding him in the ear and killing one of the attendees at the event.
Although there is no apparent connection, at the time of Saturday’s attack, the Secret Service had reinforced the ex-president’s security precisely because of those threats from Iran, the sources said.
The question now is why those additional measures put in place because of the Iranian plot failed to prevent the attacker, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, from climbing onto a rooftop and firing several shots before being shot dead by Secret Service agents.
According to a senior national security official who spoke to EFE, upon detecting the threat, the White House alerted both the Trump campaign and the Secret Service, which took additional measures to protect the former president, of the added danger.
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson told EFE that Iran has been threatening US officials for years in revenge for the attack ordered by Trump in 2020 that ended the life of General Qasem Soleimaní, former head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Because of those threats, former senior Trump administration officials involved in that operation still have bodyguards. They include former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Source: Agencies.
2024-07-18 02:30:19