The U.S. State Department is offering up to $2,000 for information leading to the arrest of an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) member suspected of involvement in a murder-for-hire plot targeting former President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton. announced that it would provide $1,000. .
Shahram Poursafi is a uniformed member of the Revolutionary Guards, a US-designated terrorist organization, and is believed to be operating in a murder-for-hire program on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF). The State Department announced.
According to the State Department, Poursafi is suspected of colluding with “criminal elements” in the United States to murder Bolton in Washington, D.C., between October 2021 and April 2022 in exchange for $300,000.
The assassination plot against Bolton is said to have occurred after Bolton served as President Trump's national security adviser from 2018 to 2019.
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LR: Former National Security Advisor John Bolton and Revolutionary Guards member Shahram Poursafi. (Reuters; FBI)
According to the State Department, Mr. Poursafi is suspected of providing “material support and resources” to facilitate the attempted murder and telling the would-be assassin that he had a second assassination job to do after Mr. Bolton was killed. This potential assassin later became a secret source for U.S. investigators.
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File: Former National Security Advisor John Bolton speaks during a panel hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran-U.S. Mission (NCRI-US) at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, DC, on August 17, 2022. Government (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The U.S. Department of Justice dismissed criminal charges against Poursafi on August 5, 2022. The U.S. Treasury Department designated Pursafi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on June 1, 2023. This means that Pursafi's property or property interests are covered. His access to U.S. jurisdictions is blocked and U.S. citizens are prohibited from doing business with him.
If convicted, Mr. Poursafi could face more than 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. He remains a fugitive abroad.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian walks by the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters in New York, September 24, 2024. (Reuters/Caitlin Ochs)
His campaign said the bounty offer came just days after former President Trump was briefed on a “real and concrete threat” from Iran to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate.
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Both incidents occurred this week as world leaders gathered for the United Nations General Assembly. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that his country “wants to play an effective and constructive role” in world affairs.
