U.S. intelligence agencies were tracking a potential Iranian assassination plot against former President Donald Trump in the weeks before a gunman opened fire last weekend, several officials said Tuesday, but they added that they did not consider the threat related to the shooting that wounded Trump.
The intelligence prompted the Secret Service to enhance security for the former president before his outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, officials said. Yet whatever additional measures were taken did not stop a 20-year-old man from clambering on top of a nearby warehouse roof to shoot at Trump.
The National Security Council contacted the Secret Service to be sure it was tracking the latest reporting and the agency shared the information with the head of Trump’s detail, according to a national security official, who like others shared sensitive information on condition of anonymity.
The Trump campaign was told about the Iranian threat not long before Saturday’s shooting, according to two people briefed on the situation, although it was not clear whether the former president himself was informed.
The intelligence that prompted the warning was new, but consistent with previous threat information, according to U.S. officials. One national security official said that although the threat was taken seriously, it did not appear from the intelligence to be fully developed.
While several officials said the Secret Service had assigned additional “resources and assets,” they declined to describe specifically what changes had been made.
The Iranian threat stemmed from Iran’s long-standing desire to take revenge for the strike ordered by Trump in 2020 that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian security and intelligence commander responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops over the years.
Iran disputed reports of a plan to kill Trump. “These accusations are unsubstantiated and malicious,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement. “From the perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law for ordering the assassination of General Soleimani. Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice.”
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