Iran’s alleged plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump and hack the Trump campaign amount to “an act of war,” according to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Just days after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear in July, the FBI announced that Iran had allegedly been separately plotting to kill the former president. Federal officials later revealed that Iran had hacked and stolen confidential information from the Trump campaign.
…
The DOJ announced the arrest of a man working on behalf of Iran attempting to recruit assassins a couple of weeks ago:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/pakistani-national-ties-iran-charged-connection-foiled-plot-assassinate-politician-or-us-0
No. That says a man who had recently visited the Middle East, and make no mention of a specified target…
That is in no way the same as “Iran tried to assassinate trump”.
He has a connection to Iran - wife and kids live there. Not as strong as saying he works for or is an agent of the gov’t there, though. The devil’s advocate might say that, “he’s got kids in Iran so Iran has the power to compel him to do this, and of course Iran isn’t going to issue him a gov’t ID that says
gov't assassin recruiterif anything they’d try to distance themselves as much as possible to give themselves plausible deniability.”Still, it’s reasonable to ask for evidence. I’d imagine more proof is forthcoming soon though - the FBI usually doesn’t comment on active investigations, which this would be (if the FBI is really investigating it, as opposed to the CIA or some other agency).
https://apnews.com/article/iran-pakistan-murderforhire-trump-justice-department-5a3abe0895ae7c2be14f89fc4e49bc53
This is a story that has been building for a few months. While I’m not particularly convinced that this specific threat was particularly credible, there’s been plenty of reporting that the Biden DOJ is taking this seriously.
It’s not really surprising to me that Iran would want Trump dead. I don’t think they were anywhere close to actually accomplishing that, but I can certainly believe they’d try.
Yes, Trump and the rest of the rightwing are going to blow it up into something bigger than what actually happened, but it’s important to understand the truth in the lie because the story is potentially consequential in the wider relationship between the US and Iran.
That’s still not showing any connection to the Iranian government…
Just that this guy has a wife and children that live in Iran…
Which is a pretty good reason why he spends time in Iran btw.
In your quote the “from Iran” just doesn’t mean what you think it means
I understand this might seem a little pedantic, but the difference is fucking huge and trump’s campaign is exploiting the same misunderstanding that you’re having right now
In fact, there are a couple of other possibilities.
He’s a lone wolf who just happens to have a connection to Iran.
He’s based in Iran but actually working for Hamas or Hezbollah.
He actually is working for Iran but not going after the former prez (being deemed too hard of a target after two assassination attempts), rather they might aim for former VP Mike Pence, or Bolton again.
Some combination of the above (e.g. a lone wolf going after Bolton).
I suppose we’ll just have to wait the trial and see what the investigation uncovers.
My “misunderstanding” is having followed this story for more than a single headline.
Marcy Wheeler has written extensively about it for months now. She’s been at the center of the story to the extent that she was one of the journalists that (presumably Iran) attempted to leak hacked Trump campaign documents through. She’s very adamantly of the stance that there is a real threat because it’s been corroborated by multiple sources who don’t have any interest in propping up Trump.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/09/25/dont-make-the-same-mistake-with-iran-that-denialists-made-with-russia/
Trump’s a blowhard. He’s absolutely going to use the story as a wedge. Don’t do his work for him by dismissing the possibility of what appear to be real threats out of hand.
I’m not saying we know the exact nature of what’s going on or that any threat is particularly immediate; what I am saying is that there’s enough information available from sources that aren’t affiliated with Trump that the possibility should be taken seriously.
Yet she offers absolutely zero evidence it is connected to Iran’s government…
You’re conflating evidence of them hacking, and saying that proves there was a state sponsored effort to recruit an assain to kill trump.
We do t even know if he’s the target…
What is so hard to understand about literally any of this?
I’ve honestly ran out of ways to keep saying the two very basic points here
Repeating yourself does seem to be your priority here.
If you had actually read through the piece I linked instead of looking for something to immediately disagree with in the snippet I quoted, you’d see she linked to this story. The entire reason we’re hearing about this now is because Trump was briefed on the threat by US intelligence and Trump is literally incapable of not immediately repeating what he’s been told.
And if you took 20 seconds to Google after that, you’d find that the DNI has publicly confirmed that the briefing with Trump happened. Additionally, the same story has Anthony Blinken confirming that the US has been tracking Iranian threats against Trump as well as other past and current officials. It even links to multiple previous reports discussing an increased threat profile dating back months just like I said was the case.
My point is that Trump is not the only source and that there’s been corroboration from parties who really don’t care about making Trump look good. I’m not inclined to believe the story because Trump said it and, yes, Trump is absolutely a liar; I’m inclined to believe it because it’s been fairly widely reported well before Trump said anything at all.