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The Justice Department has charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, accusing the man of trying to pay $300,000 to people to kill Bolton in DC or Maryland.
The suspect, Shahram Poursafi, 45, remains at large abroad, the Justice Department said. If found and convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for using interstate commercial facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, and up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to 15 years. to $250,000 for providing and attempting to provide material support for a transnational murder plot.
Federal officials said Bolton’s killing would have been retaliation for the January 2020 killing by the US military of Qasem Soleimani, a top commander in the Revolutionary Guards, which is an offshoot of the iranian army Soleimani was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad.
Bolton served as national security adviser for 17 months under Trump, resigning in 2019 after disagreeing with the president over whether to lift some sanctions on Iran as a negotiating tool.
Bolton’s departure reportedly linked to disagreement over lifting sanctions on Iran
Bolton, who did not want sanctions lifted, was a key architect of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign of escalating economic sanctions and threats of retaliation over Iran’s alleged support for terrorism . The idea was to cripple Iran’s economy to the point where its leaders felt they had to negotiate away any nuclear ambitions and missile technology.
“While not much can be said publicly right now, one point is indisputable: Iran’s rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States,” Bolton said in a statement about the indictment. “Their radical and anti-American goals have not changed; their commitments have no value; and its global threat is growing.”
Bolton was a major sponsor of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and served in arms control positions and eventually as ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush.
After the Bush presidency, he worked at right-wing think tanks in Washington, at a global private equity firm and as a contributor to Fox News.
In July, he was criticized for saying in an interview with CNN that the January 6 attack on the US Capitol was not a coup, and that he would know that because he had assisted in planned coups.
“As someone who has helped plan coups, not here but, you know, elsewhere, it takes a lot of work, and that’s not what [President Donald Trump] he did,” Bolton said in the interview. He did not elaborate.
This is a developing story that will be updated. Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.