Iran sent a written message via Swiss diplomats in mid-October saying that it would not seek to kill Donald Trump, a U.S. official told NBC News.
The message came after the Biden administration had sent a warning through Switzerland that it would view an assassination attempt against Trump as an act of war, the official said.
Washington’s private message reflected public warnings from the Biden administration about the potential grave consequences of an assassination attempt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Iran’s message.
Switzerland handles U.S. diplomatic interests in Tehran as Iran and the United States do not have official diplomatic relations.
Iran’s United Nations mission declined to comment Friday.
In July, the Biden administration obtained intelligence about an Iranian assassination plot against Trump, and the information led the Secret Service to ramp up security for his campaign.
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Last week, the Justice Department charged an Iranian man with plotting to assassinate Trump as a part of a murder-for-hire scheme.
The criminal complaint said the man was instructed by an official with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military and counterintelligence agency designated as a terrorist organization by the first Trump administration, to come up with a plan to assassinate Trump by mid-October.
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The official told the man that if he didn't have a plot in place by then, the IRGC would “pause its plan to kill [Trump] until after the U.S. presidential elections” because they believed he would lose and it would then be easier to target him, the complaint alleges.
The deadline appears to coincide with the timing of the message to Switzerland.
The Justice Department said the plot was part of Iran’s efforts to exact revenge for the death of Iranian top general Qasem Soleimani in 2020 during Trump’s first term in office. Trump ordered a U.S. drone strike that killed Soleimani in Baghdad.
Trump's campaign was briefed on Iranian assassination efforts in September, and his spokesperson Steven Cheung called the plot "an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”
Iran's foreign minister last week denied his country was involved in the plot, and called the allegations "fabricated" and a "disgusting conspiracy."
Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. Officials have found no link between the shooter in that case and the Iranian plot.
Trump’s campaign had also accused Iran of a hacking attempt in June, and U.S. agencies later confirmed that Iran was behind efforts to compromise the presidential campaigns of both parties.
Iran has denied those accusations as well, with its ambassador to the United Nations telling the state-run Fars news agency in September that they were “entirely baseless, lacking any credibility and legitimacy” and “in no way acceptable.”
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