President Donald Trump revoked security protection for his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and a former top aide, Brian Hook, despite warnings from the Biden administration that both men faced ongoing threats from Iran because of actions they took on Trump’s behalf, four people with knowledge of the matter said Thursday.
Pompeo and Hook had been part of an aggressive posture against Iran during the first Trump presidency, most notably the drone strike that killed powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in early 2020.
Trump also remains under threat because of that action, and his advisers have regularly stressed the seriousness of the situation in the years between his two terms in office.
Pompeo and Hook had their security details, which were believed to be provided by the State Department, pulled Tuesday, one of the people briefed on the matter said. A day before, Trump pulled the U.S. Secret Service detail of John Bolton, who was Trump’s third national security adviser and also faces threats.
Other than former presidents and their spouses, senior U.S. officials are not automatically granted ongoing protection. But the threat assessments from the intelligence community that the risk level remained for Pompeo, Hook and Bolton had been the basis for the Biden administration granting it to them. President Joe Biden had his aides warn the Iranians that assassinating a former U.S. government official would be considered an act of war, a former senior administration official said.
Biden’s administration had privately briefed the new Trump administration about continued threats from Iran to former Trump officials, including Pompeo, Hook and Bolton, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Bolton said he was also personally notified about the threats by the Biden administration.
“As recently as the end of last week, two separate government representatives, two separate government agencies called,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “They said our current assessment is that the threat level remains the same” as in 2022, when a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was charged with a murder plot against Bolton, he said.
A Trump spokesperson and a State Department official did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Pompeo declined to comment. Hook declined to comment.
Bolton parted with the first Trump administration on bad terms, wrote a tell-all book about his tenure and has been deeply critical of Trump. But it is less clear why the president would order the removal of the security details for Pompeo and Hook, who have been supportive of him.
Trump has told people he does not want anyone working for him who worked under Pompeo in his first term. He removed Hook as a presidential appointee to the Wilson Center for Scholars via a social media post days ago.
