The Justice Department’s unsealing today of an indictment targeting an Iranian man who allegedly plotted former national-security adviser John Bolton’s assassination is especially disturbing given that the Iranian regime knew specific details about his whereabouts in a few instances.
In court documents made public today, prosecutors and federal agents described the assassination plot in detail, including how the suspect, Shahram Poursafi — a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — allegedly coordinated with U.S.-based individuals (one of whom worked with federal agents) from Tehran to surveil Bolton’s home and office.
In an affidavit submitted to the court, an FBI agent notes at a few points that Poursafi, who the Justice Department suspects worked in tandem with the guards’ Quds Force, demonstrated accurate knowledge of some of Bolton’s movements. He knew that Bolton was at home during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays this past year and at least one instance in which the former senior official was traveling. Each of those times, according to the Justice Department document, Poursafi did not state whether he knew this through in-person surveillance, a hacking operation, or other sources.
In addition, Poursafi allegedly had a second plot against a different former U.S. official in mind. Subsequent reports have indicated that that official is former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. According to the FBI affidavit, Poursafi told the person that he hired for the Bolton hit job that taking out the second official would require considerably less surveillance and intelligence work, since that was already “complete, and had been gathered ‘from the United States,’ not via ‘Google,’” per the document. Who completed that work in the U.S.? The affidavit does not say.
It was reported several months ago that Pompeo, Bolton, and other targets have been assigned government security details, considering Iranian threats. Still, the accuracy with which Iran surveilled Bolton, as revealed today, is chilling.