FBI Says Iran Tried to Hire Hit Men to Assassinate US Government Officials

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington on Oct. 31, 2023. Win McNamee/Getty Images

After revealing that the FBI’s biggest worry is violent extremists drawing inspiration from the Hamas terror attacks in Israel to carry out attacks on U.S. soil, the federal law enforcement agency’s top official revealed that Iran tried to hire hit men to assassinate U.S. government officials.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in Congress this week, telling lawmakers that since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza earlier this month, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West.

“The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level,” he said Tuesday.

Mr. Wray said that the FBI’s most immediate concern is that homegrown violent extremists in the United States would draw inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks against Americans going about their daily lives.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing about oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 12, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Additionally, with the United States having declared its strong support for Israel after Hamas operatives staged a brutal attack against Israeli communities on Oct. 7, Mr. Wray said that there’s also an increased risk that foreign Hamas terrorists could conduct attacks on U.S. soil.

He then said that “it’s not just Hamas” that poses a danger before revealing that Iran is squarely on the radar of U.S. law enforcement for its involvement in assassination plots.

“As the world’s largest state-sponsor of terrorism, the Iranians, for instance, have directly, or by hiring criminals, mounted assassination attempts against dissidents and high-ranking current and former U.S. government officials, including right here on American soil,” he said.

Mr. Wray did not provide further details about who may have been the target of such assassination attempts or when the plots were hatched.

However, the Justice Department said last summer that a plot was uncovered in which an Iranian national tried to hire assassins to kill a senior Trump-era official—and that U.S. law enforcement was aware of other similar schemes.

In Iran’s Crosshairs

In August 2022, the Justice Department charged an Iranian national in a murder-for-hire plot to kill John Bolton, who once served as national security adviser to President Donald Trump.

The suspect, 45-year-old Shahram Poursafi, was allegedly a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization.

He allegedly tried to pay individuals in the United States $300,000 to carry out the hit on Mr. Bolton, which was ultimately foiled. Mr. Poursafi also allegedly dangled an additional “job” for which he claimed to be willing to pay $1 million.

At the time that the plot to assassinate Mr. Bolton was revealed, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said that there had been other Iran-linked assassination attempts.

“This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on U.S. soil, and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt every one of these efforts,” he said.

Then-U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton answers journalists' questions after his meeting with Belarus President in Minsk, on Aug. 29, 2019. Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images

Larissa Knapp, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said at the time that Iran “has a history of plotting to assassinate individuals in the United States it deems a threat.”

The plot to assassinate Mr. Bolton was likely set in retaliation for a U.S.-ordered strike that killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, the Justice Department said.

Iranian officials dismissed allegations of scheming to assassinate Mr. Bolton as “fiction,” while issuing a veiled threat.

“The Islamic Republic warns against any action that targets Iranian citizens by resorting to ridiculous accusations,” Iranian officials said, according to the Times of Israel.

With allegations of Iranian assassination plots on American soil back in the spotlight, there have been renewed calls by U.S. lawmakers to act.

End to Iran ‘Appeasement’?

Reacting to the FBI director’s remarks, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) took to X to say that she had introduced a bill that would put an end to what she said was the Biden administration’s “appeasement” of Iran.

Mr. Wray “admits Iran has made assassination attempts against U.S. government officials – ‘right here on American soil,’“ she wrote. ”But the Biden admin has failed to take action. My PUNISH Act will put an end to this appeasement and ensure Iran feels maximum repercussions.”

In September, Ms. Ernst introduced the Preventing Underhanded and Nefarious Iranian Supported Homicides (PUNISH) Act, which seeks to prevent the Biden administration from re-entering the Iran Nuclear Agreement until U.S. officials can certify that Iran has not planned any assassination attempts on Americans for five years.

“It’s hard to fathom that, after countless attacks on Americans, and multiple confirmed plots against U.S. officials, the Biden administration continues to cozy up to Iran in hopes of a mythical, so-called nuclear deal,” Ms. Ernst said in a statement.

“President Biden should not provide a dime of sanctions relief to the largest state sponsor of terrorism, which is actively trying to kill U.S. officials and citizens, at home and abroad,“ she continued, adding that the PUNISH Act would ”ensure Iran continues to feel maximum pressure from the United States.”

Other U.S. lawmakers have called for a formal freeze to be reimposed on the $6 billion in Iranian funds that the Biden administration lifted in return for hostages.