The U.S. State Department is reportedly shelling out more than $2 million every month to fund a 24-hour security detail for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his former aide, both of whom apparently face "serious and credible" threats from Iran.
The revelation, reported by the Associated Press, came in a "sensitive but unclassified" report on Saturday, wherein the agency admitted to spending $13.1 million on Pompeo and former Iran envoy Brian Hook between August 2021 and February 2022. The expenses appear to stem from Pompeo and Hook's role in former President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign, which involved the rollout of punitive sanctions against Iran after Trump withdrew from the Iran deal in 2018. Last month, Biden agreed to waive sanctions on Iran's civil nuclear projects, a move Iran's leadership has dismissed as "not enough" to resurrect the Iran deal.
