John Bolton, in an image from 2019. Pablo Martinez Monsivais (AP)
The United States Department of Justice accuses a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards of trying to kill John Bolton, who was President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, as announced in a statement.
According to court documents, beginning in October 2021, Shahram Poursafi, alias Mehdi Rezayi, 45, of Tehran, Iran, attempted to organize Bolton's murder, likely in retaliation for the January 2020 death of the Corps commander. of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, the powerful General Qasem Soleimani, in a US drone attack.
According to the Justice Department, Poursafi, working on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, attempted to pay individuals in the United States $300,000 to carry out the assassination in Washington or neighboring Maryland.
Poursafi is presumably in Iran, with whom the United States has no extradition treaty.
If arrested and convicted, he would face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire and up to 15 years in prison. and a fine of up to $250,000 for supporting a transnational assassination plot.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Bolton thanked the Justice Department for taking action, saying: "While not much can be said publicly now, one point is indisputable: Iran's rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States." ”, he points out.
Bolton was a Trump adviser for 17 months and a staunch supporter of the hard line on Iran.
Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor to the current president, Joe Biden, has also issued a statement: “If Iran attacks any of our citizens, including those who continue to serve the United States or those who previously did so, they will face serious consequences. ", He says.
The indictment alleges that on October 22, 2021, the Iranian asked a US resident, whom he had previously met on the Internet, to take pictures of the former National Security Adviser, claiming they were for a book he was writing.
That individual replied that he could introduce him to another person who would take the photos for between $5,000 and $10,000 and introduced him to another person who has acted as a confidential source for the FBI (the Federal Bureau of Investigation), according to the Department of Justice.
On November 9, 2021, Poursafi contacted that person via an encrypted messaging app and offered $250,000 to hire someone to "take out" Bolton.
This amount would later trade up to $300,000.
Poursafi added that he had an additional “job”, for which he would pay a million dollars.
He asked her to open a cryptocurrency account to facilitate the payment, which would occur after the murder.
Over the next two months, the Revolutionary Guardsman rushed his contact into running the operation, sending him the location of Bolton's office in Washington and also a photo with bags full of money.
On January 3 of this year, Poursafi lamented that the assassination was not carried out before the anniversary of Qasem Soleimani's death.
He also advised his contact that if he used a “small gun”, he would have to get closer to the target, but if he used a “larger gun”, he could stay further away.
The investigation shows that Poursafi had information that was not in the public domain, provided by someone working for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards from the United States.
Poursafi told the source that once the first "job" was successfully completed, he had a second assignment and that the surveillance of this second, undisclosed target had ended.
On February 1, Poursafi gave two weeks to complete the assassination.
He also informed what later turned out to be an FBI source that someone had checked the area around Bolton's home and believed there was no security presence.
On March 10, Poursafi told him that he had another assassination assignment in the United States, but to "keep [Bolton] on his mind."
The source replied in April that he would no longer work without pay, and Poursafi agreed to send him $100 in cryptocurrency to a virtual wallet to prove that the payment could be made.
Image released by the FBI for the search and capture of Poursafi.AP
“The Justice Department has a solemn duty to defend our citizens from hostile governments that seek to harm or kill them,” Deputy Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division said in the statement.
"This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge on individuals on American soil and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt each such effort," he added.
"Iran has a history of plotting to assassinate individuals in the United States that it considers a threat, but the United States government has a longer history of holding accountable those who threaten the safety of our citizens," said Deputy Executive Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBI's National Security Branch.
“Let there be no doubt: The FBI, the United States Government, and our partners remain vigilant in combating these threats here in the United States and abroad,” she added.
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