The Secret Service was alerted about the threat of a “possible drone attack” by Iran on former President Donald Trump more than a year before the first of two attempts on his life over the summer, an agent testified to Congress last month.
The unidentified agent made the disclosure during an Aug. 23 transcribed interview before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ permanent investigative subcommittee. The transcript was released late Wednesday.
The agent — who was present during the July 13 attack on Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. — was asked what they knew about “any Iranian threats to Donald Trump.”
The agent confirmed they they had been “informed and notified about an active threat.”
When pressed for more details, the agent initially demurred out of fear they would disclose classified information.
Ultimately, however, they said: “I know that they have said about [a] possible drone attack.”
In a later exchange, the agent recalled being briefed on the threat around the time they joined Trump’s protective detail, on June 4, 2023.
While Iran has long wanted to kill Trump and members of his former administration — including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and ex-national security adviser John Bolton — in retaliation for the unprecedented US-directed assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 3, 2020, the release of the transcript Wednesday marked the first time specific threats against the former president’s life by Tehran have been made public.
Given the warning, the agent expressed “concern” that the Secret Service drone detection system was not operational during the Butler rally.
“It shocked me, like just being out there. They’re planning to have a protectee with 15-, 20,000 people, in an outdoor event, when there’s an active threat for the drone attack,” they said. “That was definitely one thing that obviously raised my concerns, and I know, everyone’s concerns.”
“But,” the agent added, “it is not within the Secret Service’s decision to decide whether we are going to do this or not. It’s more like making sure that we have a good security plan and a secure site for that matter.”
The transcripts were released hours after Trump and his presidential campaign announced that there remains an active threat against him from Iran.
“Big threats on my life by Iran. The entire U.S. Military [sic] is watching and waiting,” Trump, 78, wrote on Truth Social.
“I am surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than I have ever seen before. Thank you to Congress for unanimously approving far more money to Secret Service – Zero ‘NO’ Votes, strictly bipartisan.
“Nice to see Republicans and Democrats get together on something. An attack on a former President is a Death Wish for the attacker!”
Also on Wednesday, an Iranian-made animation depicting Tehran using two drones to assassinate Trump and Pompeo resurfaced online.
In the animation, a small rolling drone equipped with cameras and lasers rolls into Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Fla. and locates the former president and his allies, who are then targeted with an aerial drone.
Posted to Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei’s website on Jan. 14, 2022, the animation won a Tehran-sponsored contest that asked participants submit videos “on the topic of revenge on Trump [former Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo and the murderers of Gen. #Soleimani,” according to the website.
