John Bolton Was Target of Assassination Plot by Iranian National

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also notified that he was an intended target, according to a person close to him. The charging document mentions a second “job” that Mr. Poursafi had intended to pursue against a “former high-ranking United States Government official from the Trump administration,” but didn’t mention Mr. Pompeo by name.

The Justice Department said the attempts were probably a response to the U.S.’s killing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020.

In an interview, Mr. Bolton, who was also United Nations ambassador and a senior State Department official under President George W. Bush, said that shortly after Gen. Soleimani’s assassination, he received a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to warn him of an assassination threat. The FBI typically warns American citizens against such threats.

Mr. Bolton left the White House in September 2019 amid a disagreement with Mr. Trump over Afghan peace talks and other foreign-policy issues. Mr. Pompeo, who was Mr. Trump’s first CIA director and is a former member of Congress, served throughout Mr. Trump’s term in office.

Axios was first to report that Mr. Pompeo was the second senior U.S. government target.

“Trump lifted my Secret Service protection the day I resigned,” Mr. Bolton said in the interview, adding that some administrations temporarily extend that protection for senior officials who depart the government as a precaution.

He never experienced any attacks or attempts on his life during that period, he said. However, as the FBI’s investigation grew more serious, he was granted Secret Service protection in December 2021 by the Biden administration, he said.

In court documents, the Justice Department said Mr. Poursafi was working on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, an elite unit responsible for its foreign operations, and attempted to pay individuals in the U.S. to carry out the killing in Washington, D.C., or Maryland. Mr. Poursafi, who couldn’t be reached for comment, is at large and outside the U.S., the Justice Department said. If he is in Iran, he is unlikely to be taken into U.S. custody.

“Iran’s plot to assassinate a U.S. official on U.S. soil is an outrage—and their continuing attempts to carry out lethal operations against Americans should concern us all,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said. “This case is the result of hard work by many, and the FBI will continue to confront Iranian aggression and protect Americans, at home and abroad.”

The White House said the alleged plot wouldn’t derail negotiations in Vienna on restoring the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers. The U.S. and European officials said Monday the text for an agreement had been completed and it was up to Iran to decide whether to take or leave the deal.

The Biden administration won’t waver “in protecting and defending all Americans against threats of violence and terrorism,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. “Should Iran attack any of our citizens, to include those who continue to serve the United States or those who formerly served, Iran will face severe consequences.”

According to court documents, Mr. Poursafi asked an unnamed U.S. resident whom he had previously met online to take photos of Mr. Bolton last October and claimed they were for a book he was writing. The U.S. resident introduced Mr. Poursafi to another person who was a confidential informant working for federal authorities, prosecutors said. Over encrypted messaging, Mr. Poursafi offered the individual $250,000 to “eliminate” Mr. Bolton, and the amount was later negotiated up to $300,000, prosecutors said. Mr. Poursafi also allegedly said he had another “job” that would pay the informant $1 million to carry out.

The informant later asked Mr. Poursafi for help locating Mr. Bolton, and Mr. Poursafi shared his work address in Washington, D.C., as well as screenshots from an online map tool that included a street view of Mr. Bolton’s office, prosecutors said. The screenshot shared included information that said the address was “10,162 (kilometers) away,” officials said, which is the rough distance from Tehran to Washington.

In February, Mr. Poursafi told the informant that the informant needed to kill Mr. Bolton within two weeks, and said that someone else had checked the area around Mr. Bolton’s home and hadn’t detected any security presence, according to court papers.

Searches by federal authorities later uncovered images of Mr. Poursafi wearing a uniform with an IRGC patch, and Mr. Poursafi never denied being affiliated with the group, officials said.

Mr. Poursafi is charged with using interstate commerce facilities to commission a murder-for-hire plot and providing material support to a transnational murder plot.

Iranian Maj. Gen. Soleimani was killed in a U.S. airstrike ordered by then-President Trump when traveling in a convoy in Baghdad. As the leader of the Quds Force, Gen. Soleimani was the country’s most powerful military commander since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He was also considered a nemesis to the U.S. in the Middle East, with American officials blaming him for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and their regional allies.

His death immediately sparked fears of Iranian retaliation among U.S. officials and security experts.

Both Messrs. Bolton and Pompeo have long espoused hawkish foreign-policy views on Iran and pushed for a more aggressive security posture against Tehran during their time in the Trump administration.

—Andrew Restuccia in Washington contributed to this article.

Write to Dustin Volz at dustin.volz@wsj.com and Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com