While the $20 million reward the State Department is offering for information on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member Shahram Poursafi is "the right thing to do," John Bolton, national security adviser to former President Donald Trump, told Newsmax on Thursday that the U.S. must step up its response to the threat Iran poses to current and former American officials.
"Well, I think it's the right thing to do by the State Department and the Justice Department, as a matter of law enforcement," Bolton said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “The Record With Greta Van Susteren.” "And there are a lot of people who are potentially affected by this. [Former President Donald] Trump has been at the top of the list from the beginning, but I think it's more than a law enforcement matter. I think that it's a national security matter when a foreign state, particularly one like Iran, threatens and actually does more than threaten, it takes action against present or former government officials for the jobs they did while they were working for the government."
"And we have not retaliated against Iran for this," he continued. "We have protested and made statements, but it obviously hasn't stopped Iran as the action against President Trump shows. So, I think we've got to look at what we might do from a more active perspective militarily to tell Iran that this behavior is unacceptable. Whether it succeeds or fails isn't the test; it's the fact they're trying to do it that we should be worried about."
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is offering a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Shahram Poursafi, a uniformed member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who is believed to be working to arrange the murder-for-hire of Bolton.
From October 2021 to April 2022, Iran-based Poursafi attempted to hire criminals within the United States to murder Bolton in Washington, D.C., or Maryland in exchange for $300,000, according to a release from the State Department. Poursafi allegedly provided material support and resources and told the potential assassin – who became a confidential source for the U.S. – that after he murdered Bolton he would have a second assassination job for him.
Bolton said he thinks the "bounty and the criminal complaint … is the right thing to do from a law enforcement perspective but it’s not just a law enforcement matter … I don't think any of the administrations really have done enough, obviously, to deter Iran."
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