The Justice Department on Wednesday charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard in a plot to assassinate former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, CNN reports.
Prosecutors say Shahram Poursafi, 45, tried to pay $300,000 to someone in the United States to kill Bolton.
He also offered $1 million for a “second job,” which appears to refer to another plot to assassinate former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The plot was “likely in retaliation” for the January 2020 strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
After the strike, the group vowed “revenge against Americans.”
Still at large:
Poursafi has not been arrested and remains at large.
Investigators learned of the plot after he reached out to a person in the US who was working as a “confidential human source” for the FBI.
The person was asked to take photos of Bolton “for a book that Poursafi was writing,” the DOJ says, but later was asked to hire an assassin to “eliminate someone.”
Poursafi allegedly said the murder should be done “by car,” noting that Bolton liked to take walks alone.
The informant traveled to DC to take photos of Bolton.
Bolton responds:
Bolton told CNN that he was “embarrassed at the low price” Poursafi allegedly offered to have him killed.
Bolton said he has "long had a general understanding of what the threat was" from Iran but learned more details from the DOJ.
"I think it's quite correct to say many other Americans are in the targets of this regime. It tells you what the regime is. It tells you about its character," Bolton said.
