The Department of Justice Charged a Member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard for Plotting to Kill Former National Security Advisor John Bolton
The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged an Iranian national and member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday with planning to hire someone to kill former national security adviser John Bolton.
The DOJ said in a release that Shahram Poursafi started planning to murder Bolton in October, likely in retaliation for the United States’ January 2020 drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force.
The release says that Poursafi attempted to pay people $300,000 to kill Bolton in Washington, D.C., or Maryland.
“The Justice Department has the solemn duty to defend our citizens from hostile governments who seek to hurt or kill them,” said Matthew Olsen, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s national security division. “This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on U.S. soil and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt every one of these efforts.”
