Trump’s security forces were reinforced weeks ago because of an Iranian assassination plot

Protection for Donald Trump was increased several weeks ago after U.S. authorities learned of an Iranian assassination plot against him, national security officials said.

According to officials, there is no known connection between the alleged Iranian plot and the assassination attempt on the former president on Saturday in Pennsylvania.

However, the revelation that security measures had been tightened raises further questions about how 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb a building and get close enough to shoot Trump.

The US secret service and the Trump campaign team were informed about the Iranian threat and security measures were subsequently increased, according to a US security official.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations called the report “baseless and malicious,” adding that Trump was “a criminal who must be brought to justice and punished.”

Intelligence sources told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner, that the Secret Service beefed up security measures in June in response to the Iranian threat, including adding counter-attack agents and snipers, drones and robot dogs.

CBS reported that details of a possible Iranian operation were obtained through “human intelligence” amid a sharp increase in Iranian rumors of attacks on Trump.

Trump and his officials, including his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have faced threats from Tehran since ordering the assassination of Qassim Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, in a drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

Anthony Guglielmi, a U.S. intelligence spokesman, said the intelligence agency and other agencies “continue to receive new information about potential threats and take actions to adjust resources as needed.”

“We cannot comment on specific threat streams other than to say that the Secret Service takes threats seriously and responds accordingly.”

The Trump campaign team said it would not comment on security issues and referred BBC questions to the Secret Service.

Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said U.S. security officials had been “tracking Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years.”

“These threats stem from Iran’s desire to avenge the killing of Soleimani,” she said. “We view this as a national and domestic security matter of the highest priority.”

However, she reiterated that the investigation had found “no links” between Crooks and “any accomplices or co-conspirators, domestic or foreign.”

In 2022, the Justice Department indicted a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, alleging that he plotted to assassinate Mr. Bolton.

Prosecutors said the plot was “probably retaliation” for Soleimani’s killing.

Questions have been raised about how police and agents in charge of the rally at the Butler County Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania were able to allow Crooks to get so close.

The Secret Service director admitted that local police were in the building while Crooks was on the roof, aiming at Trump from 130 meters away.

CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, reported that three local police snipers were in the building and saw Crooks climb onto the roof.

The local sheriff’s department referred the BBC’s questions to the state police, who said they had no jurisdiction over the area where the building was located.

A state police spokesman told the BBC that they had provided “all resources requested by the Secret Service,” including 30 to 40 police officers within the restricted area.

President Joe Biden has ordered an independent investigation to find out how the gunman came so close to killing Trump. The Secret Service also faces congressional investigations.