The United States has been “tracking very intensely for a long time an ongoing threat by Iran against a number of senior officials, including former government officials like President Trump, and some people who are currently serving the administration,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a recent television interview.
On September 26, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program announced the offer of a reward for up to $20 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Sharam Poursafi, whom the U.S. alleges attempted to carry out such a threat.
“Poursafi is a uniformed member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who is believed to be working on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force to arrange the transnational murder for hire of former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton,” the State Department announced in a statement.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a criminal complaint against Poursafi for his role in the alleged plot, which the Justice Department said was “likely” in retaliation for the January 2020 death of U.S.-designated terrorist Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force.
Such a murderous plot by the Iranian regime to assassinate U.S. officials, as Secretary Blinken indicated, is not unique: in September 2024, the Justice Department unsealed a two-count indictment charging a Pakistani man also of allegedly seeking to hire a hitman to assassinate U.S. politicians and government officials. FBI director Christopher Wray said the orchestrator of the plot, Asif Merchant, now in U.S. custody, was “close to Iran” and that the foiled scheme was “straight out of the Iranian regime's playbook.”
Because of the threats emanating from Iran, security protection has been extended to several former U.S. and current officials. In the cases of Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, their security has been enhanced.
Since coming to power in 1979, the Iranian regime has been implicated in assassinations, terrorist plots, and terrorist attacks in more than 40 countries. The deadly threats posed to former and current U.S. officials by Iran are a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority. As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said, “We will continue to bring to bear the full resources of the U.S. government to protect Americans.”
