Weeks ago, U.S. authorities stepped up protection against Iran after learning of a plot to assassinate him, according to national security officials.
Officials say there is no known link between the Iranian plot and Saturday’s assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania.
However, news of increased security further raised questions about how 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed the building and got close enough to shoot Trump .
According to U.S. national security officials, the U.S. Secret Service and the Trump campaign were notified of the Iranian threat, and security measures were stepped up as a result.
Trump and officials including his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, have faced criticism from Tehran since ordering a drone strike in Iraq in 2020 against Iranian Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani. threaten.
U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the U.S. Secret Service and other agencies “continue to receive information about new potential threats and take action and adjust resources as needed.”
“We cannot comment on any specific threat streams other than to say that the Secret Service takes threats seriously and responds accordingly.”
The Trump campaign said it did not comment on security issues and referred BBC questions to the Secret Service.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said U.S. security officials “have been tracking Iranian threats to former Trump administration officials for years.”
“These threats stem from Iran’s desire to avenge Soleimani’s death,” she said. “We consider this to be the highest national and homeland security priority.”
But she reiterated that the investigation “has not uncovered” a link between Crooks and “any domestic or foreign co-conspirators or co-conspirators.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations called the report “unsubstantiated and malicious,” adding that Trump “is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in court.”
In 2022, the Justice Department announced criminal charges against a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accusing him of orchestrating a plot to assassinate Bolton.
Prosecutors said the plot “may have been in retaliation” for Soleimani’s killing.
Questions have been raised about how police and agents in charge of the rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, allowed Crooks to be so close.
The Secret Service chief acknowledged that local police were inside the building while Crooks was on the roof targeting Trump 130m (430 feet) away.
The BBC’s US partner CBS News reported that three local police snipers were inside the building and saw Crooks climbing onto the roof.
The local sheriff’s department referred the BBC’s questions to state police, who said they have no responsibility for the area where the building is located.
A state police spokesman told the BBC they provided “all resources” requested by the Secret Service, including 30 to 40 police officers from the surrounding area.
President Joe Biden has ordered an independent review into how the shooter came so close to killing Trump, and the Secret Service faces congressional investigations.
