Trump briefed on "threats from Iran to assassinate him," his campaign says

By Axios | Created at 2024-09-25 02:41:25 | Updated at 2024-09-30 07:30:32 5 days ago

Intelligence officials briefed former President Trump "regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos" in the U.S., his campaign said Tuesday evening.

The big picture: The 2024 election has seen a spike in political threats, with two assassination attempts on Trump, shots being fired into Vice President Harris' campaign office in Tempe, Arizona, and election officials targeted.

U.S. officials see Iran as the biggest nation-state threat to November's elections. Last week, U.S. investigators found Iranian "malicious cyber actors" emailed associates of President Biden's re-election campaign with "non-public material" stolen from Trump's campaign over the summer.

Details: Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement that officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODI) briefed the Republican presidential nominee who's faced two assassination attempts this year of the latest threats.

"Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference," Cheung said.

Zoom out: The FBI, CISA and the ODNI in a joint statement last week said that the summer cyberhack that occurred before Biden suspended his campaign were an "example of Iran's multipronged approach" to "stoke discord and undermine confidence" in the U.S. electoral process.

A spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign said last week that the team had cooperated with authorities since being made aware "that individuals associated with the then-Biden campaign were among the intended victims of this foreign influence operation" after their personal emails were targeted.

For the record: Iranian officials have consistently denied interfering in U.S. elections. They did not immediately comment on the Trump campaign's announcement.