Ex-Trump officials say they asked the Biden DOJ for protection from Iranian threats but never got an answer

WASHINGTON — Three former Trump administration officials who say they were warned that Iran had targeted them wrote a letter to the Justice Department 18 months ago asking for help protecting them, but never received a response, according to the officials.

“It is clear there are specific, credible threats against us and our families by Iran and those inspired to act on Iran’s behalf,” the officials wrote in the letter, a copy of which they provided to NBC News. “This necessitates urgent steps to improve our physical and cyber security.”

The officials are former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, and two top officials who focused on the Middle East at the National Security Council, Victoria Coates and Robert Greenway.

In January 2020, then-President Donald Trump authorized a drone strike in Iraq that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The U.S. government has long said Iran has plotted retaliation against the U.S. for the Soleimani strike. Top Iranian officials have also issued explicit threats against current and former U.S. officials whom Iran blames for his death. For example, in early 2023 an IRGC commander said on live television that “God willing we will be able to kill” Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a U.S. general.

Some former Trump administration officials, including Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton, receive personal security protection funded by the U.S. government because of the potential threat to them from Iran. The Biden administration also recently received intelligence showing a possible Iranian assassination plot against former President Donald Trump, NBC News has reported.

In an interview with NBC