US intelligence officials briefed former US President and Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday about alleged threats from Iran to assassinate him, Trump's presidential campaign said.
Earlier today, President Trump was briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States," the campaign said according to Reuters and AFP.
The campaign said that intelligence officials have identified that Iranian threats have "heightened in the past few months." It added that US government officials were working to protect Trump and ensure nothing would affect the elections, according to Reuters.
Iran had earlier rejected US claims of interference in American affairs. Officials at Iran's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York and the ODNI did not immediately return requests for comment late Tuesday.
The suspect who tried to murder Trump at his golf course at Florida has been indicted on three counts including attempted assassination of major presidential candidate, the US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
Along with attempted assassination of a presidential candidate, the new charges also include possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime and assault on a federal officer, court documents indicated that he is accused of attacking a Secret Service agent.
The AFP reported that the Secret Service scout ahead of President Trump's golf game first saw Routh's gun poking out from the bushes. An agent took the suspect to be shooting at him and opened fire, but Routh ran off and was later caught.
This was the second attempt on Trump's life during this summer. The first occurred on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when a gunman opened fire killing one and wounding Trump in the ear.
Trump has earlier accused the Department of Justice and FBI for "mishandling and downplaying" the golf course incident.
"The charges against the maniac assassin are a slap on the wrist," Trump said in a written statement released this week, which may have been prepared before it emerged that extra felony counts on top of the earlier gun charges were a possibility.
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