President Donald Trump terminated Secret Service personnel assigned to his former national security adviser John Bolton within hours of taking office, Bolton confirmed to CNN on Tuesday.
Bolton left the Trump White House in November 2019, requiring continued protection from the U.S. Secret Service due to threats posed to him by Iran. Trump initially ended his protections after leaving the government during his first term, but President Joe Biden restored them when he took office.
“I am disappointed, but not surprised, that President Trump has made this decision,” Bolton said in a statement to CNN. “Despite my criticism of President Biden’s national security policies, he has decided to Give me Secret Service protection again in 2021.”
“The Department of Justice filed criminal charges in 2022 against an Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer for trying to hire a hitman to target me. The threat remains today, as does the recent arrest of an individual who attempted to arrange the assassination of President Trump. Proving it, the American people can judge for themselves which president made the right decision.
Bolton, who served in senior national security positions in the Bush administration, has long been known for his hawkish stance on Iran. He strongly opposes the 2015 nuclear deal, which imposed strict restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions, and has called on Trump to withdraw from the deal once he takes office.
In May 2018, about a month after Bolton was hired as national security adviser, Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement. Trump fired Bolton in September 2019 after saying he “strongly disagreed” with many of Bolton’s positions.
Bolton published a book in 2020 in which he claimed the president was woefully ill-informed about foreign policy issues, obsessed with shaping his own media legacy and that Trump asked the leaders of Ukraine and China to help him win the 2020 election. Trump responded by threatening to jail Bolton, repeating his frequent threats against those who offend him.
After Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on Trump’s orders in early 2020, the Justice Department said the Iranian government sought retaliation against senior Trump officials involved in the assassination, including Bolton, even though he The coup de grace was not in government at the time.
In August 2022, the Justice Department filed charges against an Iranian national and members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accusing them of trying to arrange for Bolton’s murder. Prosecutors said the plot against Bolton “may have been retaliation for Soleimani’s assassination.”
On Monday, one of Trump’s first acts after taking office was to revoke Bolton’s security clearance – dozens of former national security officials have lost their security clearances because of the new president’s signature.
This is a major story and will be updated.
CNN’s Michael Williams contributed to this report.
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