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“Iran has a historical past of plotting to assassinate people within the U.S. it deems a menace,” stated Larissa L. Knapp, the manager assistant director of the F.B.I.’s nationwide safety department, which labored on the case with the Justice Division and Secret Service.
By November, Mr. Poursafi had been launched to a number of different People on an encrypted messaging platform, and made a surprising provide to one in all them, the one who turned out to be the informant: He would pay $250,000 to “remove” Mr. Bolton, who had left the White Home in late 2019 after a tumultuous year-and-a-half tenure.
Mr. Poursafi later hiked the provide to $300,000, then added that he had an unspecified follow-up “job,” for which he would pay $1 million, officers stated. Justice Division officers have knowledgeable Mike Pompeo, who took a tough line on Iran as Mr. Trump’s secretary of state, that he was the second goal for assassination, in keeping with an individual near Mr. Pompeo.
Mr. Poursafi by no means tried to hide his connection to the Revolutionary Guards. In actual fact, he appeared to make use of his standing to intimidate would-be conspirators, U.S. officers stated.
By early 2021, he was sharply rising strain on the informant to maneuver forward with the assassination, sending detailed data on the situation of Mr. Bolton’s workplace and residence. In January, he supplied the informant “with specifics concerning the previous nationwide safety adviser’s schedule that don’t seem to have been publicly accessible,” in keeping with a story of the case supplied to reporters by the Justice Division.
Mr. Poursafi additionally urged the informant to arrange a cryptocurrency account for cost. He made it clear, nevertheless, that he would make the deposit solely after the job was accomplished, and he demanded the informant videotape the killing. He warned the informant, darkly, that his bosses in Tehran could be “indignant” if the job weren’t accomplished to their satisfaction.
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