President Trump rescinded security protections for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former top aide Brian Hook. people with knowledge of the matter said Thursday.
Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook were part of President Trump’s aggressive stance against Iran, especially the drone strike that killed Iranian strongman Qassim Suleimani in early 2020.
Mr. Trump has also come under threat for his actions, and his advisers regularly emphasize the seriousness of the situation in the years between his two terms.
Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook pulled a security detail on Tuesday that was supposed to be provided by the State Department, one of the people briefed on the matter said. The day before, Mr. Trump pulled out the U.S. Secret Service details of John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s No. 3 national security adviser and the person facing the threat.
Other than former presidents and their spouses, other senior U.S. officials are not automatically granted continued protection. But the threat assessment from the intelligence community that the risk level of Mr. Pompeo, Mr. Hook, and Mr. Bolton remained was the basis for the Biden administration to grant it to them.
Mr. Biden’s administration has personally briefed the new Trump administration on the continuing threat from Iran to former Trump officials, including Mr. Pompeo, Mr. Hook and Mr. Bolton, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. I was there.
Bolton said he was personally notified of the threat by the Biden administration.
“Just like at the end of last week, two separate government representatives, two separate government agencies were called,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “They said our current assessment is that the threat level remains the same.”
Trump spokesmen and State Department officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Mr. Pompeo declined to comment. Hook declined to comment.
Bolton left the first Trump administration on bad terms, writing an entire book about his tenure and being deeply critical of Trump. But the reasons why the president would order the removal of the security details of Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook, who support him, are less clear.
Mr. Trump told people he didn’t want anyone who didn’t work for him, having worked for Mr. Pompeo in his first term. He removed Mr. Hook as the presidential appointee of the Wilson Center for Scholars via a social media post a few days ago.
