The U.S. officials who have been targeted or threatened in Iranian plots

Washington — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the latest U.S. official to be threatened or targeted by Iran, but he is far from the first. 

The Iranian regime has been implicated in various plots to target top U.S. officials since 2020, when President Trump ordered the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

Threats against Americans have ramped up since the start of the ongoing war with Iran. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned in October that Iran has “substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel” abroad, with plots to kill Americans reaching “advanced stages” in the Middle East and other countries.

Bessent relocated from his home in the Washington, D.C., area to a military base following a series of Iranian threats against his life, CBS News confirmed Wednesday. 

The threats against other officials have been detailed in court records and news reports. Here are other U.S. officials Iran has targeted or threatened in recent years:

President Trump 

The U.S. charged Pakistani national Asif Merchant with plotting a murder-for-hire scheme targeting U.S. officials in documents unsealed in August 2024. Court documents didn’t name his targets, but multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News that President Trump was one of them. Merchant was convicted of terrorism and murder for hire in March of this year. 

The Justice Department said Merchant was a trained operative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and that he admitted the IRGC sent him to the U.S. to arrange for political assassinations and to steal documents. Prosecutors said law enforcement thwarted his efforts and he was arrested. 

At the time, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said Merchant “landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement.” 

The Justice Department separately charged Farhad Shakeri, an alleged IRGC asset living in Tehran, in November 2024. Prosecutors said Shakeri told FBI agents that an IRGC official had directed him the month before to come up with a plan to kill Mr. Trump. If he couldn’t do it in time, the official said, the IRGC would wait until after the election, believing Mr. Trump would lose and be easier to target. Shakeri told investigators he didn’t intend to propose a plan within the IRGC’s timeframe. He remains at large and is believed to be in Iran.

Mr. Trump also secretly switched planes before returning from a summit in Turkey over the summer, a move that came after intelligence warnings about an Iranian plot to target Air Force One with a surface-to-air missile. Mr. Trump later told reporters, “I have a lot of threats.”

Former President Joe Biden 

Merchant testified that his IRGC handler told him to “maybe have somebody murdered.”

“He did not tell me exactly who it is, but he told me — he named three people: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley,” Merchant testified in court. 

The Biden administration lifted some sanctions on Iranian officials as it tried to renegotiate and revive the defunct Obama-era Iran nuclear deal. But Biden imposed sanctions on Iran when those negotiations failed. 

Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. 

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during Mr. Trump’s first term in office, has long been critical of Iran. 

In an appearance on the “Build or Break” podcast this week, Haley talked about Merchant and the IRGC plot. 

“The IRGC, the Iranian regime, paid a Pakistani businessman money to do it,” Haley said. “And that’s the reason why I’m so adamant about Iran is, they are targeting Americans on American soil. They have tried to get Trump multiple times. We should not be giving them even a breath when they’re doing things like that. But that’s because I speak out against the regime. We have to be truth tellers.” 

John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser

John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, has also received threats from the Iranian government. Bolton has long been a hard-liner on Iran, and urged Mr. Trump to increase pressure on Iran during the president’s first term. 

In 2022, Shahram Poursafi, a member of the IRGC, was charged with plotting Bolton’s murder, the Justice Department announced at the time. The Justice Department said the plot was “likely in retaliation” for Soleimani’s death. 

But Poursafi was never caught. He remains wanted by the FBI. The bureau added him to its list of Most Wanted Terrorists just this week.

Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state 

Mike Pompeo was Mr. Trump’s secretary of state when Soleimani was killed, and led the Trump administration’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. 

Pompeo said Soleimani was “actively plotting” to take actions “that would have put dozens, if not hundreds, of American lives at risk” when the U.S. killed him. 

Sources told CBS News in 2022 that Pompeo was another target of the IRGC plot against Bolton.

Brian Hook, former U.S. special representative for Iran 

As the U.S. special representative for Iran, Brian Hook also led the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, drawing Iran’s ire. 

In 2022, CBS News reviewed State Department threat assessments sent to Congress citing a “serious and credible threat” to the lives of both Pompeo and Hook. The State Department was paying millions of dollars a month to protect Pompeo and Hook with 24-hour security amid threats from Iran, according to a report obtained by CBS News at the time.

The Trump administration revoked the security detail for both Hook and Pompeo in Mr. Trump’s first week back in office in January 2025. 

Mark Esper, former defense secretary 

Mark Esper, Mr. Trump’s defense secretary from 2019 to 2020, told CBS News in 2022 the government provided him “protection 24/7” when he left the federal government because of threats from Iran.

Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security adviser

Robert O’Brien was Mr. Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser during Mr. Trump’s first term in office. “60 Minutes” reported that O’Brien received taxpayer-funded security protection due to potential threats from Iran, long after he left his government position.