TEHRAN - In June 2019, when Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he had canceled planned attacks on Iran just 10 minutes before they were set to occur, clueless Democrats seemed to dismiss his claims as mere bluffs.

However, new information obtained by the Tehran Times shows that the former president had indeed prepared for these attacks and was ready to proceed with them, were it not for a legal advisor's eleventh-hour intervention.

A senior Republican has told the Tehran Times that Trump along with former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had decided to launch heavy attacks on Iranian soil without notifying Congress. 

“In the meetings we had they said it was better to keep Congress uninformed about the attacks as the body would have most probably disagreed with their plans. Trump boasted that he could make ‘important decisions’ on his own,” said the source.

As Trump had mentioned in his tweets, the attacks were supposed to target three military sites on Iranian soil in response to the country’s downing of a sophisticated U.S. drone – Global Hawk – above its territorial waters.  Two cyber-attacks were also to hit Iran’s infrastructure. 

Shortly after the unmanned reconnaissance aircraft incident, the ex-president, Bolton, and Pompeo met with Congressional leaders. During the meeting, the then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged them to seek an AUMF (congressional approval for military action) before moving forward with any plans for striking Iran. 

Despite having already readied themselves for the attacks, all three agreed to Pelosi's request, as disclosed by the senior Republican. “Trump did not believe in democracy whatsoever. He thought he was above the law and that nobody was allowed to challenge him as the president.”

The former president decided to call off the strikes only 10 minutes before they were planned to happen after one of his legal advisors warned about their disproportionateness. This move allegedly angered Bolton and Pompeo who believed the decision was being “thrown up in the air” based on incorrect assessments. As per the advisor’s analysis, proceeding with the strikes could have resulted in the loss of at least 150 Iranian lives in a dangerous escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington.  

Trump’s critics have been warning that the former president is a “threat to America’s democracy”. Their main basis for this argument is the January 6, 2021, United States Capitol attack, which happened after Trump’s supporters refused to recognize election results announcing Joe Biden as the new U.S. president. Trump initially advocated for overturning the results instead of asking his supporters to back down. 

“Military officials had given Trump a list of 700 targets within Iran. Trump said he would attack more places out of that list if Iranians decided to respond. He kept suggesting hitting an oil refinery without understanding the consequences of such a move. Bolton always emboldened him,” the source explained. The Tehran Times has obtained access to this list. 

Furthermore, additional information indicates that the highly classified list and other confidential documents concerning Iran have been accessed by several individuals who were not authorized to view them. Trump was allegedly the one that showed them “what he was planning to do to Iran.” 
 
Trump has been accused of mishandling classified documents before. Last year, CNN obtained a 2021 audio recording of Trump telling his aides that he was holding onto classified Pentagon documents about a potential attack on Iran despite not being in office anymore. The conversation reportedly took place in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Trump is currently under prosecution for 37 counts related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

“Trump just doesn't understand what classified means. He treats confidential documents as if they are his own property,” the source told the Tehran Times.