The US received written assurances from Iran ahead of the presidential election that its leaders would not actively try to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, CBS News confirmed, according to sources with direct knowledge of the correspondence. The message came after the White House confirmed in September that killing a former US president or former US official would be seen by the Biden administration as an act of war.
“We consider this a national and homeland security issue of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for this reckless threat,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement in September.
Iran said in the message, which was provided by a third party, that it understood the premise. The Wall Street Journal first reported Iran’s message to the US
The Department of Justice is now indicting at least two people who were allegedly part of an assassination plot to kill Trump while he was still a candidate. one operative working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told federal investigators that he was assigned in September to “surveilling, and, ultimately, killing” Trumpaccording to court records unsealed last week.
Prosecutors said Farhad Shakeri, who is believed to be living in Iran, told investigators in a telephone interview that an unnamed IRGC official had pushed him to plan attacks on Trump to take place in October. If the plan cannot come together in time, Iranian officials directed Shakeri to postpone the plot until after the election because officials “assess that (Trump) will.” lost the election” said the charging document.
In early August, a Pakistani citizen with alleged ties to Iran arrested and charged by planning an assassination-for-hire scheme targeting US government officials and politicians, according to documents unsealed Tuesday.
U.S. officials said Iran did not assign its most effective proxy force, Hezbollah, to carry out the plot. This official described Iran’s approach so far as “good if it works. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t matter.”
In response to a question indicating that “Iran has told the US it will not try to kill Trump”, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran said it would not comment on official messages between the two countries.
The mission said in a statement, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has long declared its commitment to pursue the assassination of Martyr Soleimani through legal and judicial means, while adhering to recognized principles of international law.”
Trump has infuriated the Iranians for several reasons. He withdrew from the international Iran nuclear deal, which had lifted some sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear program. He is also targeting 2020 deadly air strikes Iran’s top commander General Qasem Soleimani. Since then, several Trump administration officials and military officials have received threats from the regime, among them, Robert O’Brienwho was the national security adviser at the time of the strike. His successor in the job, John Bolton, who is part of the maximum pressure campaign that applies sanctions pressure on Tehran, has also received threats.
In 2022, the US intelligence community gave its assessment Iran will threaten Americans – directly and through proxy attacks – and are committed to expanding their network in the US. and former Trump administration Iran envoy Brian Hook. A non-public assessment showed that throughout 2021 and again in 2022, the State Department determined that an hourly U.S. taxpayer-funded diplomatic security detail was needed to protect the two men. That continues today.
Several former officials have spoken to CBS about the task force reports they recently received from the FBI and other agencies about the ongoing threat from Iran and Iranian-hired actors, which means the U.S. is taking the threat seriously and not taking Iran seriously. regime guarantee at nominal value.
Robert Legare contributed to this report.
Margaret Brennan
