Donald Trump’s Secret Service security was beefed up in the weeks leading up to the assassination attempt amid intelligence reports of an alleged Iranian plot to eliminate the former president.
A human source informed US officials about the plot, according to a new report from CNN.
It currently does not appear that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks had anything to do with the Iranian plot.
Crooks, 20, shot Trump in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday before being captured by U.S. Secret Service.
The new report of heightened security surrounding the former president could raise even more questions amid outrage among Republicans over the Secret Service’s failure to detect the would-be assassin before he opened fire on the rally.
U.S. authorities received information from a source in recent weeks that provided detailed information about the Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, multiple insiders told CNN.
In a statement Sunday, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency recently “added protective resources and capabilities to the former president’s security detail.”
Trump’s campaign has recently received several warnings about its outdoor rallies, citing risks they pose compared to indoor events, where access to the venue is controlled.
However, sources claim that these warnings were general in nature and did not specifically mention the threat posed by Iran.
Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump appears to be unrelated to Iranian plans to carry out their own attacks on the former president and now officially the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
It does not appear that 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, the intended assassin, was involved in the Iranian plot
Crooks was a registered Republican who donated to a group supporting President Joe Biden in 2021. He graduated from high school in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania in 2022 and was described as a loner who was bullied.
The gunman was taken down by officers seconds after shooting Trump in the ear.
He killed one of the rally’s attendees, former fire chief and father of two Corey Comperatore, 50, and seriously wounded two others: David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.