President Donald Trump, right, ousted John Bolton, left, from his first administration in 2019. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
"The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me. That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump's own assassination," Bolton continued in his statement. "The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call."
The Iranian threats against Bolton were likely sparked by the January 2020 U.S. strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, the Department of Justice reported in 2022.
Bolton served as Trump's national security advisor between 2018 and 2019, before Trump ousted him because they "disagreed strongly" on policy issues.
"I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House," Trump tweeted in 2019. "I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week."
John Bolton, pictured here in 2019 when serving as the U.S. national security advisor, has faced threats from Iran going back years, including an alleged plot to assassinate him in 2021. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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"I don’t think he’s fit for office," Bolton said in 2020. "I don’t think he has the competency to carry out the job. There isn’t really any guiding principle that I was able to discern, other than what’s good for Donald Trump’s reelection."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-revokes-john-boltons-secret-service-detail-amid-iranian-death-threats-former-national-security-advisor