Due to persistent threats against them from Iran, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Brian Hook, one of Trump’s top Iran aides, were approved for extended government protection by the Biden administration.
The State Department pointed out in separate notices – signed by Acting Deputy Secretary of State John Bass and sent to Congress late last week – that the specific threats with respect to both Pompeo and Hook persist and remained serious and credible.
The latest notifications to Congress marked the seventh time the State Department has extended protection to Pompeo and the 10th time it has been extended to Hook since he left office in January 2021.
The fact that Pompeo automatically had government security for several months after leaving office as a former Cabinet secretary has led to the discrepancy.
Hook, which served as the President Donald Trump administration’s special envoy for Iran, was the public face of the “maximum pressure” campaign the US waged against Iran following Trump’s 2018 decision to withdraw from the JCPOA, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Though the notifications do not specifically identify Iran as the source of the threats, Tehran vowed revenge against both men following the US assassination of Iran Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020, which they reportedly orchestrated.
The Iranian leadership has long vented anger at Pompeo and Hook for the Trump administration’s policy against Iran they led and for subjecting the Revolutionary Guard Corps to unprecedented sanctions after designating it a foreign terrorist organization.
Information emerged in March 2022 that providing 24-hour security to Pompeo and Hook cost the State Department more than $2 million per month.
The protection continues even though the Biden administration has continued to press ahead with indirect talks with Tehran aimed at salvaging JCPOA, which have been stalled for many months now and Washington is pessimistic they will resume anytime soon considering the major crackdown on antigovernment protests that Tehran launched in the meantime.
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