In its first 24 hours in office, the Trump administration removed U.S. Secret Service protection from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, who became a critic of the president after Bolton’s ouster from the first Trump administration in 2019. Multiple sources told CBS News the decision was made in the past 24 hours.
LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images
Bolton, an outspoken critic of President Trump, was granted Secret Service protection by the Biden administration in December 2021 for the first time since he served in the Trump White House. That decision followed a series of threats from Iran linked to retaliation for a drone strike ordered by Mr. Trump during Bolton’s tenure, resulting in the assassination Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
In a statement, Bolton told CBS News that he is “disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has made this decision.”
“Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to once again extend Secret Service protection to me in 2021,” Bolton continued.
In 2022, Shahram Porsafi, a member of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was charged with a murder plot targeting Bolton. The Justice Department said in 2022 that the plot was “likely in retaliation for the January 2020 death of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Qasem Soleimani.” The FBI offered a $300,000 reward for information leading to Porsafi’s capture. Last September, the Biden administration announced a reward of up to $20 million for information on Porsafi.
In his statement today, Bolton added, “That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination. The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call.”
Bolton and another former national security adviser under Mr. Trump, Robert O’Brien, required ongoing U.S. Secret Service protection long after they left their positions, both due to potential threats from Iran. For nearly one year of protection, the total for both individuals was $12,280,324, a bill paid by U.S. taxpayers, according to reports filed to Congress by former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and obtained by CBS’ “60 Minutes” last year through a Freedom of Information Act request.
As is standard for all Secret Service protectees, Bolton had dedicated special agents keeping him safe 24 hours a day, covering his home, as well as both domestic and foreign travel.
The Secret Service declined a request for comment.
On Monday, Mr. Trump took executive action to start revoking the security clearances of Bolton and dozens of intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 claiming emails found on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden bore the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.
The executive action was part of a slew of measures signed by Mr. Trump in the hours after he was sworn into a second term in office and is one of his first steps he has taken to target those he considers political opponents, now that he has returned to the White House.
Among other first-day actions in the Trump administration, a newly hung portrait of former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley was removed from a wall at the Pentagon. Milley had reportedly previously criticized Mr. Trump as “fascist” and a “wannabe dictator.”
