Shahram Poursafi allegedly offered an American $300,000 to kill John Bolton. The US Justice Department announced the charges on a Wednesday in August 2022, and named Poursafi, an alleged member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, as a wanted man.
According to the indictment, Iran wanted Bolton dead in retaliation for the January 2020 killing of General Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian commander. Bolton served as Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser.
Bolton thanked the agencies involved in a message on Twitter. He credited the Justice Department for the proceeding, the FBI “for its diligence in discovering and tracking the Iranian regime’s criminal threat to American citizens,” and the Secret Service for protecting him against Tehran’s efforts.
What the plot involved
A Justice Department official had described the plot to the Washington Examiner back in March. The scheme, the official said, combined Revolutionary Guards spying with an effort to hire an assassin based in the US.
Officials say Poursafi worked at it from October 2021 to April 2022, trying to hire “criminal elements within the United States” to murder Bolton in Washington DC or Maryland. One of the people he approached was a confidential source for US investigators, according to the State Department. He allegedly told that person a second assassination job would follow the first.
Intelligence officials found the plan early. They were worried enough to give Bolton full-time Secret Service protection, either in late 2021 or early 2022. He still has it.
The same Justice Department official said the evidence was serious enough to demand immediate public indictments. Reports at the time said the Biden administration had held back, fearing that going public could damage the Vienna nuclear talks with Iran.
A $20 million reward
In September 2024 the US offered a $20 million reward for information leading to Poursafi’s arrest. He remains at large, and officials say he is not believed to be in the US.
The announcement came the same week Trump said US intelligence had briefed him on an alleged Iranian plot against him. Iran has previously denied orchestrating plots against Trump officials. US investigators have not suggested Iran was behind either of the two recent attempts on Trump’s life, at a rally in Pennsylvania and at his Florida golf course.
Bolton, speaking to NBC that week, said Washington should be “more proactive.” He put it bluntly: “When they come after us, government officials, current and former, for doing their job, really, that’s an attack on the United States government itself.”
Sources
- Iranian agent charged in plot to assassinate John Bolton
- US puts $20m bounty on Iranian accused of John Bolton assassination plot
