Newsman: The Biden administration on Thursday offered a $20 million reward for a member of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps charged in a murder-for-hire plot targeting former national security adviser John Bolton.
In announcing the reward for Poursafi, U.S. officials say his plot was part of a broader effort by Iran to exact revenge on the U.S., especially officials from the Trump administration like Bolton, because of Trump’s order to kill IRGC General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.
From October 2021 to April 2022, Poursafi, who was 45 at the time, tried to hire “criminal elements within the United States” to murder John Bolton in or around Washington, D.C., in exchange for $300,000, according to the reward announcement.
They also suggested that the plot is ongoing, saying in a news release that the Iran-based Poursafi “is believed to be working” on behalf of the IRGC’s international paramilitary unit, the Qods Force, to arrange Bolton’s assassination.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the administration is “tracking very intensely … an ongoing threat by Iran against a number of senior officials, including former government officials like President Trump, and some people who are currently serving the administration.”
The bounty for Shahram Poursafi comes two days after former President Donald Trump said he’d been briefed by U.S. intelligence officials about “real and specific” Iranian threats to his life.
The criminal complaint against Poursafi alleges that he provided material support to facilitate Bolton’s murder. He also told the potential assassin – who had become a confidential source for U.S. investigators – that once he murdered Bolton, he would have a second assassination job for him worth $1 million.
