CNN claimed on Tuesday that the US Secret Service ramped up security around Donald Trump in recent weeks based on intelligence from a single “human source” that Iran was plotting to assassinate the former president, accusations Tehran rejected as “unsubstantiated and malicious.”
The report offered no evidence for the claim and only cited unnamed people “briefed on the matter.” They said there was no indication that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who tried to assassinate Trump over the weekend, had any connection to the alleged plot.
The idea that the Secret Service increased security around Trump has been contested since Crooks was able to get off multiple shots from a nearby rooftop that wasn’t secured.
The report connected the alleged Iranian plot to Trump ordering the assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who headed Iran’s Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In response to the report, Iran’s mission to the UN said, “These accusations are unsubstantiated and malicious. From the perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law for ordering the assassination of General Soleimani. Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice.”
Hellbound and Down 