The plot to kill the 'stache
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Andy McCarthy
Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have been plotting to assassinate John Bolton, former national-security adviser in the Trump administration, says a Justice Department official with direct knowledge of the government’s investigation of the suspected plot. That is according to Tom Rogan, who reported the development in the Washington Examiner on Monday.
The DOJ source told Rogan that prosecutors have enough evidence to indict two Iranians attached to the IRGC’s Quds force, but that the Biden administration has resisted filing public charges for fear that it could derail their ongoing effort to strike a nuclear deal with Tehran.
When contacted by the Examiner, a DOJ official denied that charging decisions are driven by “these kinds of policy considerations.” Based on my own experience as a prosecutor handling matters that had foreign-relations implications, I am surprised to hear a Justice Department official say that.
Iran has also threatened former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as other former Trump officials who worked on issues related to Iran. As Rogan notes, Congress in late 2020 approved the stepping up of Pompeo’s security detail beyond his government tenure principally because of Iranian threats. There have also been reports of more robust Secret Service presence around Bolton since January. Rogan states that the suspected Iranian plot against Bolton is “believed to have precipitated [Biden] national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s Jan. 9 warning to Iran that the U.S. would protect officials ‘serving the United States now and those who formerly served.’”
