Trump briefed about ongoing Iranian threats to assassinate him, campaign says

Top U.S. intelligence officials briefed former President Donald Trump on Tuesday about threats from Iran to assassinate him, a Trump campaign spokesperson said.

“President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference.”

A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday evening acknowledged there was a briefing but declined to address any specifics.

Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Harris campaign did not have an immediate comment.

The Secret Service ramped up security around Trump this year when the Biden administration received intelligence about an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Trump. News of the increased security came days after the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania; officials said at the time that there was no sign of a connection between the Iranian plot and the assassination attempt at a campaign rally.

The Iranian mission to the U.S. dismissed the allegations of an assassination plot as “unsubstantiated and malicious,” Iranian state media reported at the time.

Trump told the Daily Mail last month that he was refusing intelligence briefings so he would not be accused of leaks. It was not immediately clear whether Trump has resumed regular briefings.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A second apparent attempt on Trump’s life took place Sept. 15 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect, Ryan Routh, was arrested that day and charged Tuesday with attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, on top of other earlier charges.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would give major presidential candidates like Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris the same level of protection as President Joe Biden.

The bill now heads to the White House for Biden’s signature. Biden said recently that the Secret Service “needs more help.”

Trump’s campaign accused Iran of a hacking attempt in June, and U.S. agencies later confirmed that Iran was behind efforts to compromise the presidential campaigns of both parties. More recently, intelligence agencies said that Iranian actors hacked into Trump’s campaign and sent documents not publicly available to Biden campaign associates.

Iran denied the accusations, with the country’s ambassador to the United Nations calling them “entirely baseless, lacking any credibility and legitimacy,” the semi-official Fars news agency reported last week.