“Poursafi responded that it was like crossing the street: it was better not to spend too much time looking in one direction, but just to do it.” So FBI special agent Randi Beck swore in an affidavit describing how Shahram Poursafi, an Iranian man, allegedly answered when asked about his experience with killing.
On August 10, 2022, the Department of Justice unsealed charges against Poursafi, 45, also known as Mehdi Rezayi. It says he is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and offered $300,000 to have John Bolton, the former national security adviser in the Trump administration, killed. Prosecutors say the motive was probably revenge for the January 2020 US strike that killed IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani. Poursafi is charged with attempting to provide material support for a transnational murder plot and with using interstate commerce facilities in a murder-for-hire. He remains at large. Authorities say he has never visited the United States and is believed to have run the plot from Tehran.
The timeline in the affidavit
According to Beck’s affidavit, Poursafi approached a US resident, called “Individual A,” on social media during 2021. In October of that year he asked for photographs of Bolton, saying they were for a book he was writing. Individual A introduced him to a second person, apparently living in Texas, who would take photos and video for a fee. That person became a confidential source for the FBI.
In early November 2021, Poursafi used an encrypted messaging app to ask the source to find someone who could “eliminate” a target for $200,000, with $50,000 more as a finder’s fee. The source reported back that a hitman had been found, supposedly a Mexican national with links to a drug cartel, but that he wanted more. After checking with unnamed associates, Poursafi is alleged to have agreed to $300,000. The DOJ says that on November 19 he told an associate in the US that the method did not matter, but his “group” needed video proof of the death.
The first method he suggested was “by car,” noting that Bolton often walked in a park. He said his group would protect the source and the would-be assassin afterward, and the Guardian reports he mentioned another job, for $1m, once Bolton was dead.
The source asked for money up front. Poursafi replied that his group would be angry if it paid and the killing was not carried out. Nobody could get pre-payment, he said, because of “a recently failed operation.” The source had asked repeatedly to be reimbursed for the cost of tracking Bolton. In December 2021 he sent photographs of two plastic bags stuffed with bundles of dollars, with the source’s name and the date on a label in front.
The pressure grew. On January 3, 2022, Poursafi allegedly said he regretted the killing would not be done by the anniversary of Soleimani’s death. In February he urged the source to act within two weeks or lose the job. The next month he said he had a separate assassination job in the US and told the source to “keep Behnam” (his code name for Bolton) “in the back of your mind.”
The exchanges ended on April 28, when the source said they would not go on without payment. Poursafi then sent $100 in cryptocurrency, in two payments, to the source’s electronic wallet. By then, according to the affidavit, the FBI had hacked his online accounts and could watch both sides of the conversation, including his internet searches on Bolton. The affidavit includes a photo of a bearded man in IRGC camouflage, said to be Poursafi.
Reactions
“The justice department has the solemn duty to defend our citizens from hostile governments who seek to hurt or kill them,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the National Security Division. “This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on US soil and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt every one of these efforts.”
Iran rejected the charges. Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Iran “strongly warns against any action against Iranian citizens under the pretext of these ridiculous and baseless accusations.”
Bolton thanked the Justice Department, the FBI and the Secret Service, and said: “Iran’s rulers are liars, terrorists and enemies of the United States.” He used the case to argue against re-entering the 2015 nuclear deal, then under negotiation. His office confirmed that the Trump administration gave him no protection after he left the White House in September 2019, and that the Biden administration did. Secret Service cars had reportedly been parked across from his Washington-area home since at least early 2022.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan praised the “diligence and professionalism” of the DOJ and FBI and warned that Iran “will face severe consequences” if it attacks any American, including those who formerly served. If convicted, Poursafi faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the murder-for-hire count, and up to 15 years and another $250,000 fine on the material support count.
Sources
- US charges Iranian man over alleged plot to kill ex-Trump aide John Bolton
- Iranian charged in plot to murder ex-Trump Security Adviser John Bolton
