Source: Iranian plot had $1M Pompeo bounty
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Poster released today. Photo: FBI via AP
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was told by the Justice Department that he was a second target of a plot, revealed Wednesday, by an Iranian operative to murder former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.
Driving the news: A source close to Pompeo told Axios that DOJ "has confirmed directly to Secretary Pompeo that he is one of the individuals who has been targeted by those who are [charged] in the announced DOJ [documents]."
Catch up quick: DOJ on Wednesday unsealed charges against Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.
Zoom in: A charging document contains details about an unexplained "second job," which the source said is a reference to Pompeo.
- The affidavit says that in November 2021, Poursafi offered a confidential human source $300,000 to hire a killer to "eliminate someone."
- Poursafi "also said that he had a second job for $1 million."
- DOJ did not immediately return a request for comment.
The charging document later refers to an unnamed "former high-ranking United States Government official from the Trump Administration."
- Poursafi told a confidential source that "targeting that official was dangerous because there were a lot of people around him/her, but that his/her time would come."
Go deeper: Earlier Axios story ... Read the affidavit ... Read the press release.
