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US authorities have received intelligence from private sources in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate President Donald Trump, a development that has prompted the Secret Service to step up security around the former president, people briefed on the matter told CNN.
There is no evidence to suggest that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who plotted to assassinate the former president on Saturday, was involved in the plot, the officials said.
The existence of intelligence threats from hostile foreign intelligence services and increased security for President Trump have raised new questions about security lapses at Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and how a 20-year-old man was able to get onto a nearby rooftop and open fire, wounding the former president.
U.S. national security officials said the Secret Service and the Trump campaign were aware of the threat before Saturday’s rally.
“The Secret Service learned of the increased threat from this wave of threats,” the official told CNN. “NSC reached out directly to senior levels of the USSS to ensure they were constantly tracking the latest reports. The USSS shared this information with detail leaders, who then learned of the increased threat. In response to the increased threat, the Secret Service increased resources and assets to protect former President Trump, all of which took place in advance of Saturday.”
The Trump campaign did not say whether it was aware of the Iranian threat. “We do not comment on security matters for President Trump and should refer all questions to the U.S. Secret Service,” the campaign said in a statement.
Secret Service officials have repeatedly warned the Trump campaign against hosting outdoor rallies that pose higher risks than events where the agency can better control access, according to people familiar with the matter. The warnings were more general, the people said.
“The Secret Service and other agencies constantly receive new potential threat information and take steps to adjust resources as needed,” agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Tuesday. “We cannot comment on specific threat streams other than to say the Secret Service takes threats seriously and is responding accordingly.”
At one point during the election, the campaign stopped hosting spontaneous private events with guests not first screened by the Secret Service due to security concerns, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
The FBI, which is investigating Saturday’s shooting, declined to comment.
NSC spokesman Adrian Watson said there are no known links at this time between the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and any other individuals.
“The investigation into Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Trump remains active. At this time, police report that the investigation has not identified any links between the shooter and any domestic or foreign accomplices or conspirators,” Watson said.
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations has denied the possibility that Iran is plotting to assassinate President Trump.
“These accusations are baseless and malicious. From the perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in court for ordering the assassination of General Soleimani. Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice,” a spokesman for the mission told CNN, a reference to Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander who was killed in a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020.
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria questioned Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani about the alleged Iranian assassination plot, and whether it was in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani during the Trump administration.
“I have made it clear that we will resort to legal procedures and judicial frameworks at the national and international levels to bring to justice the perpetrators of Soleimani’s assassination and his military advisers,” Kani told Zakaria in an interview to air Sunday on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”
Asked further whether that meant no violent means would be used, Kani said: “We will only rely on Iranian and international legal and judicial processes.”
“We have done so in the past and it is our right and of course we will continue to do so in the future. And the US has openly said that it has assassinated a senior Iranian military commander. So it is our right to pursue this matter and those accused in this case should be tried in a fair court,” Kani said.
Trump and his Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, will hold their first official campaign rally on Saturday at an indoor arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the campaign announced Tuesday.
Iran has repeatedly vowed to seek revenge for the US killing of Soleimani, and former senior national security officials in the Trump administration have been under heavy guard since leaving the administration.
In August 2022, the Department of Justice announced criminal charges against members of the IRGC for plotting to assassinate John Bolton, who served as President Trump’s national security adviser. U.S. prosecutors said the plot against Bolton was “likely in retaliation for the assassination of Soleimani.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also the target of an Iranian assassination plot, according to federal law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation and a source close to Pompeo.
Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security adviser, had hired U.S. government security personnel because of the Iran threat, as did Pompeo and other former Trump administration officials, but those personnel were fired last summer, according to a source familiar with the matter. O’Brien now pays for his own private security, the source said. Lawmakers were not given specific reasons for the decision, which has led to frustration. O’Brien did not respond to a request for comment.
Bolton still has Secret Service protection.
Law enforcement officials have been concerned for months about ongoing threats from Iran attempting to assassinate members of the former Trump administration or the former president himself, according to people familiar with the matter, but recent intelligence suggests the threats have increased significantly, the people told CNN.
One of the sources told CNN that warnings about the planned operation coincided with a surge in online messages from Iranian accounts and state-run media mentioning Trump, raising security concerns among US officials.
CNN’s Josh Campbell contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
