A senior FBI official said Tuesday that the bureau is “not ruling out” a potential Iran link to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.
“We have no information that there are any domestic or foreign conspirators involved in this, including Iran, but let me be clear: we do not have evidence of that,” Deputy Attorney General Paul Abbate said at a joint Senate committee hearing on Capitol Hill.
“We’re not ruling anything out. We’re looking at all possibilities and keeping an open mind,” he said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked Abbate whether there were any “specific or imminent threats” against former President Trump on the day of the shooting.
Trump assassination attempt: Senate grills Secret Service, FBI agents
Former President Trump responded after being shot in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
“The Iranian terrorist regime has been targeting its people and our country for many years. I’ve spoken here before about this, but I want to be clear. From the FBI’s standpoint, we know publicly that they are targeting former President Trump. They have called for his assassination,” Abbate said.
On July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania, Blumenthal asked if the Secret Service was thinking about Iran, and Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe responded, “As Deputy Director Abbate said earlier, we are aware of public opinion and rhetoric from the Iranian government seeking to do harm to Donald J. Trump, and we are using a threat-based model.”
The FBI is leading the investigation into the Trump rally shooting by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump, latest attempt to kill an American on US soil
Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe, left, and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testify at a hearing of the Senate Joint Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the security failures that led to the assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, Tuesday, July 30, in Washington, DC. (AP/Kevin Wolf)
The motive for the attack remains unclear.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has effectively put a bounty on President Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisor John Bolton for their roles in the US drone strike that took out global Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Former President Trump was photographed being hurried off a stage by Secret Service agents in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
Click here to get the FOX News app
According to the US government, Soleimani is accused of killing more than 600 US military personnel in the Middle East.
Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
