Back in 2021, Shahram Poursafi, an Iranian national and member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, attempted to arrange the assassination of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s indictment, Poursafi offered a confidential human source (CHS) “$250,000 to hire someone to ‘eliminate’ the former National Security Advisor. This amount would later be negotiated up to $300,000. Poursafi added that he had an additional ‘job,’ for which he would pay $1 million.”
The DOJ concluded Bolton was marked for death “likely in retaliation for the January 2020 death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force (IRGC-QF) commander Qasem Soleimani” — a strike on a notorious Iranian supporter of terrorism against Americans, ordered by President Trump.
Poursafi provided the would-be assassin Bolton’s work address and “screenshots of a map application showing a street view of the former National Security Advisor’s office,” as well as “specifics regarding the former National Security Advisor’s schedule that do not appear to have been publicly available.” On February 1, 2022, Poursafi told the would-be assassin “that someone checked the area around the former National Security Advisor’s home, and he believed there was not a security presence, so the CHS should be able to ‘finish the job.’”
In other words, the threat to Bolton’s life is not imaginary, theoretical, or exaggerated. The mullahs of Iran have marked a former U.S. official for death and are willing to spend six figures to see the plan through.
Shahram Poursafi is indicted but remains at large. He is on the FBI’s Most Wanted list and is considered armed and dangerous.
Under federal law, the U.S. Secret Service protects presidents and vice presidents, their families, former presidents, visiting dignitaries, and “other individuals as designated per executive order of the President.” In December 2021, President Biden extended Secret Service protection to Bolton, in light of the ongoing Iranian desire to assassinate him.
Upon taking office this week, Donald Trump took away Bolton’s security detail, right after pledging in his inaugural address, “I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats.” Eh, apparently not every American and not every threat. In addition to Bolton’s, Trump revoked the security protection of two other first-term officials facing threats from Iran who got on his bad side — former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and his aide, Brian Hook.
Whether you like Bolton and others or dislike them shouldn’t really matter in this discussion. If you worked for the U.S. government and, because of your work, a hostile foreign state decides to try to kill you, the least the federal government can do is shell out for some protection.
This is not the time to mutter about the U.S. Secret Service’s subpar performance at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania and argue they won’t make much difference. The mere fact of a protective detail can be enough to scare away prospective assassins, as happened when an armed gunman turned himself in to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s detail.
Upon taking office, Donald Trump faced a choice. He could maintain a policy that helped protect men who once worked for him — one of whom happened to turn into an outspoken critic — or he could render them more vulnerable to potential assassination by a foreign adversary.
Trump chose the latter. With an erstwhile friend like this, who needs enemies?