Iran officials on Wednesday vehemently rejected “malicious” reports of an alleged plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump, saying the Islamic nation seeks a “legal path to bring him to justice” for ordering the assassination of an Iranian general in 2020.
The White House confirmed to USA TODAY a report that Trump’s security was increased in recent weeks after intelligence showed Iran had been plotting to kill him. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Iran has sought revenge since Trump ordered the drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, whom Trump later described as “the No. 1 terrorist anywhere in the world.”
Trump was speaking Saturday before throngs of supporters at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Pennsylvania when a gunman opened fire from the roof of a nearby building. Trump, his face bloodied from a bullet that apparently injured his ear, was hustled off the stage by Secret Service personnel. Trump supporter Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed and two other rallygoers were critically wounded before a sniper fatally shot the gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Authorities have found no connection between Iran and Saturday’s shooting. Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani on Wednesday dismissed claims of any assassination plot targeting Trump and said the allegations “have malicious political motives and objectives.”
Iran’s mission to the U.N. said in a statement that Trump remains a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law for ordering Soleimani’s assassination. “Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice,” the statement said.
∎ The father of the gunman called police after the shooting, worried that his son and a weapon were missing, three senior law enforcement officials told NBC News. Fox News is reporting the family called authorities before the shooting took place.
Friends, family to honor shooting victim Corey Comperatore
Friends and family of Corey Comperatore will gather Thursday in Freeport, a small town on the Allegheny River, to pay their respects to the only person killed at Saturday’s tragic campaign rally. Funeral services will be held Friday at his longtime Butler County church. Comperatore has been proclaimed a hero after Gov. Josh Shapiro said the former volunteer firefighter dived onto his family to protect them when the shooting started.
James Sweetland, a doctor from Dubois, Pennsylvania, who was at the rally, rushed to help Comperatore. But he had been shot in the head above his ear and never regained consciousness.
“Yesterday time stopped,” Allyson Comperatore, his daughter, said on Facebook. “And when it started again my family and I started living a real-life nightmare.” Read more here.
