By The newspaper
16 Jul 2024, 19:21 PM EDT
US intelligence agencies had detected an Iranian plot to assassinate former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump weeks before the assassination attempt that took place last Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Sources familiar with the matter confirmed this information to EFE. Although no link has been found between the Iranian plot and Saturday’s attack, in which a 20-year-old man shot Trump, wounding him in the ear and killing one of the attendees, the threat had led to an increase in security measures around the former president.
The Secret Service, alerted by the White House to the additional danger posed by the Iranian plot, had reinforced Trump’s security before the attack in Butler.
However, these measures were not enough to prevent the attacker, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, from managing to climb onto a roof and fire several shots before being shot down by the officers.
Years of threats
Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, told EFE that Iran has been threatening US officials for years in revenge for the attack ordered by Trump in 2020, which resulted in the death of General Qasem Soleimaní, former head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Because of these threats, several former Trump administration officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, still have bodyguards.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation, said Crooks acted alone and used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that had been legally purchased by his father. No links have been identified between Crooks and other possible foreign agents.
The Secret Service is under scrutiny for security lapses that led to the attack, the first assassination attempt on a former president since Ronald Reagan’s 1981 shooting.
The US government has announced an independent investigation into these failures and has strengthened Trump’s security detail. In addition, Secret Service agents have been assigned to independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.
With information from EFE.
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