Security for Republican nominee Donald Trump increased in recent weeks after U.S. intelligence services learned of an Iranian plot to assassinate the former U.S. president, CNN reported on Tuesday.
The news channel cited a U.S. national security official, who said that the Secret Service and Trump campaign were made aware of the threat prior to the July 13 rally, in which Trump was shot in the ear in an attempted assassination attempt.
“Secret Service learned of the increased threat from this threat stream,” the official told CNN, adding that the White House’s National Security Council warned senior Secret Service operatives “at a senior level.”
Secret Service “shared this information with the detail lead, and the Trump campaign was made aware of an evolving threat,” the official said, per CNN. “In response to the increased threat, Secret Service surged resources and assets for the protection of former President Trump.”
The Trump campaign would not tell CNN if it was made aware of the threats. Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, told JNS that the federal agency could not comment on the report “other than to say that the Secret Service takes threats seriously and responds accordingly.”
“The Secret Service and other agencies are constantly receiving new potential threat information and taking action to adjust resources as needed,” Guglielmi told JNS.
Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, told CNN that there’s no known link between the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and “any accomplice or co-conspirator, foreign or domestic.”
Little is known about Crooks, and authorities have yet to confirm a motive.
Reported threats from a hostile regime and enhanced security at campaign rallies raise questions about how Crooks was able to secure an elevated position, at a distance of only several hundred feet from Trump, and to fire multiple shots using an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle before Secret Service snipers killed him.
Republican lawmakers vowed investigate how someone could climb onto a roof close to where the presidential candidate was speaking and fire several shots before being detected.
The Iranian regime has repeatedly threatened to murder Trump and other former cabinet officials of his, including former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo, over the January 2020 killing of the then Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani by the United States.
In February 2023, another Iranian commander said that “God willing,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would kill Trump and Pompeo “and military commanders who issued the order should be killed.”