Whistleblowers have revealed to Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) office that law enforcement personnel were meant to be positioned on the roof where the gunman later opened fire.
The authorities abandoned the site due to heat concerns.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Hawley wrote, “Since my last correspondence to you on July 19, additional whistleblowers have contacted my office with troubling information about the assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump.”
Hawley explained that “one whistleblower with direct knowledge of Secret Service planning for the event alleges that there was supposed to be a law enforcement presence on the roof that day.” He noted that the “whistleblower alleges that at least one individual was specifically assigned to the roof for the duration of the rally, but this person abandoned his or her post due to the hot weather.”
Heat concerns “prompted law enforcement to forego patrolling Building 6 and instead to station security personnel inside the building,” the whistleblower alleged.
Hawley then inquired about a “nearly completed” report detailing DHS personnel’s “involvement in providing security” during the rally.
The senator asked Mayorkas to provide information regarding law enforcement’s abandonment of the post, which units were supposed to be positioned on the roof, and if any law enforcement personnel failed to report to their assigned stations on July 13.
Hawley’s office previously learned from whistleblowers that the July 13 rally was “considered to be a ‘loose’ security event,” according to another letter sent to Mayorkas.
“For example, detection canines were not used to monitor entry and detect threats in the usual manner. Individuals without proper designations were able to gain access to backstage areas. Department personnel did not appropriately police the security buffer around the podium and were also not stationed at regular intervals around the event’s security perimeter,” the letter explained.
Hawley added that the whistleblowers alleged that many of the DHS officials present during the rally were not “USSS agents but instead drawn from the department’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).”
Now-resigned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle claimed last week that authorities were not on the roof from which Donald Trump’s alleged shooter, Thomas Crooks, opened fire because it was too slanted.
“That building, in particular, has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” Cheatle told ABC News. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
