Former President Donald Trump was briefed Tuesday by top U.S. intelligence officials about threats from Iran to assassinate him, a Trump campaign spokesperson said.
“President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
“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.”
A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond either.
The Harris campaign did not have an immediate comment.
Earlier this year, U.S. Secret Service ramped up security around Trump when the Biden administration received intelligence about an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Trump. News of the increased security came days after the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, but officials said at the time that there was no sign of a connection between the Iranian plot and the assassination attempt at a campaign rally.
The Iranian mission to the U.S. dismissed the allegations of an assassination plot as “unsubstantiated and malicious,” Iranian state media reported at the time.
In August, Trump told the Daily Mail he was refusing intel briefings so that he would not be accused of leaks. It was not immediately clear whether Trump has since resumed regular briefings.
NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
A second apparent attempt on Trump’s life took place on Sept. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. The suspect, Ryan Routh, was taken into custody on Sept. 15 and charged Tuesday with attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, on top of other earlier charges.
The statement from Trump’s campaign came on the same day that the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would give major presidential candidates like Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris the same level of protection as President Joe Biden.
The bill now heads to the White House for Biden’s signature. The president recently said that the Secret Service “needs more help.”
