The US Justice Department on Wednesday criminally charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for allegedly plotting the assassination of John Bolton, who served in senior national security positions during the Trump and Bush administrations.

The alleged plot was “likely in retaliation” for the January 2020 US air strike that killed the top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani when Trump was president.

Shahram Poursafi, 45, who remains at large abroad has been accused of attempting to pay various individuals in the $300,000 to kill Bolton, beginning in October.

Also Read | ‘The best is yet to come’, Donald Trump teases a run for Presidency in 2024

“The Justice Department has the solemn duty to defend our citizens from hostile governments who seek to hurt or kill them,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, chief of Justice’s National Security Division, said. “This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on US soil and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt every one of these efforts.”

According to the US Justice Department, Poursafi is charged with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire and with providing and attempting to provide material support to a transnational murder plot.

“I wish to thank the Justice Department for initiating the criminal proceeding unsealed today; the FBI for its diligence in discovering and tracking the Iranian regime’s criminal threat to American citizens; and the Secret Service for once again providing protection against Tehran’s efforts,” Bolton said in a statement after the case was unsealed Wednesday.

Also Read | Iran places first import order worth $10 million using cryptocurrency

According to prosecutors, the plot came to light in October 2021, when Poursafi contacted a US person he had met online. Poursafi was looking for someone who could take photographs of Bolton for a supposed book project.

The US contact, who has been identified in court documents as “Individual A,” connected Poursafi with an associate who served as a confidential source for US authorities.