Mon. Jan 27th, 2025

Two Republican Senate allies of President Trump urged him on Sunday to rethink his decision to strip security details from former advisers who have been targeted by Iran, saying the move could chill his current aides from doing their jobs effectively.

Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, spoke after Mr. Trump abruptly halted government security protection for three officials from his first time who were involved in his Iran policy and have remained under threat.

One of them, John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s third national security adviser, has been a vocal critic of Mr. Trump since departing the administration in 2019. The other two, his former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and another former top State Department official, Brian Hook, have been supportive of Mr. Trump. His decision to pull their details surprised and alarmed some of the president’s allies.

“I would encourage the president to revisit the decision for those people who are being targeted by Iran, as the president was targeted for assassination by Iran,” Mr. Cotton said on Fox News. He said he had reviewed current intelligence and that the threats remained real.

Mr. Cotton suggested that those going to work now for Mr. Trump on Iran, China, North Korea or Mexican drug cartels “might hesitate to do so, or they might hesitate if they’re in office to give him the advice he needs or carry out the policies that he decides upon.”

Mr. Bolton, Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook were involved in an aggressive posture against Iran that included the drone strike that killed the powerful military commander Qassim Suleimani in 2020. Iran has sought to retaliate against Mr. Trump as well as those officials ever since, according to the intelligence community.

In 2022, an Iranian man was charged with being a part of a murder-for-hire plot against Mr. Bolton. And the Biden administration briefed incoming Trump officials before the inauguration that the threats against all three men were continuing.

“If there’s a legitimate threat against people who served our government from a foreign adversary, I don’t want to pull that protection,” Mr. Graham said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “So I think what you’ll see is the Senate particularly get a briefing about this, and engage the White House to see if we can get some relief. Because I fear it will chill out how people will serve in the future.”

He said that his understanding from Mr. Cotton was “that the threat levels justify the continuation of the program.”

Mr. Graham deflected a question about whether the withdrawal of protection amounted to retribution by Mr. Trump against Mr. Bolton but said, “The question is, do you deserve protection because you served an administration, you stood up to a foreign adversary, and they want to kill you?”

Mr. Trump has also pulled the security for Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the infectious disease expert who advised the first Trump administration during the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Fauci has been a target of Mr. Trump’s political base for almost five years including threats against his life.

Mr. Trump has taken other actions targeting perceived critics as he begins his second administration, including removing or dismissing at least 12 inspectors general, internal agency watchdogs whose role is to guard against corruption and government abuse.

Presidents are allowed to make such dismissals, but are required to give Congress 30 days’ notice and a detailed explanation. Neither appears to have happened in this case.

“It’s a very common thing to do,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday. He said later that “some people thought that some were unfair, some were not doing their job, and it’s a very standard thing to do.”

But Mr. Trump’s action was not typical. In fact, presidents have usually kept inspectors general, who are confirmed by the Senate, in their jobs even when administrations turn over, to preserve the appearance of nonpartisanship in a role that is supposed to be independent.

Mr. Trump noted that he was not dismissing Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general for the Justice Department. Mr. Horowitz has found, among other things, that James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director whom Mr. Trump fired in 2017 during an investigation into the Trump campaign, had violated department policy with memos capturing his own discussions with Mr. Trump.

“I thought his report on Comey was incredible,” Mr. Trump said, calling it “such an accurate, well-done report.”

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