Authorities had received tip about Iran’s plot to assassinate Trump: Secret Service under growing pressure
The government recently received intelligence about a plot by Iran to assassinate Donald Trump, which had caused the Secret Service to increase security.
The government had recently received intelligence regarding a plot to attempt to assassinate Donald Trump, according to a report by CNN. The information reportedly resulted in heightened security surrounding the Republican presidential candidate in the past weeks.
CNN’s sources say that no connection had been established between the alleged plot and Thomas Matthew Crooks, who tried to kill Trump during a political rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
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Authorities had received tip about Iran’s plot to assassinate Trump: Secret Service under growing pressure
Knowledge of a potential threat from an antagonistic country against the former president brings into greater focus how Crooks was able to get close enough to the former president to shoot and injure him, especially if security had already been beefed up.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has already accepted responsibility for what was seen as lapses in security during Saturday’s rally. She said the shooting should not have happened and that it was “unacceptable.”
A national security official told CNN said that both the Secret Service and Trump’s campaign team had been informed of the plot prior to the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The campaign of the former president however did not speak on whether they knew about the reported threat from Iran.
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Iran denies assassination plot
A spokesperson from the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations told CNN that accusations of an Iranian assassination plot against Trump were “unsubstantiated and malicious.”
The mission spokesperson said that as far as Iran is concerned, “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.”