A whistleblower recently revealed that the Secret Service did not conduct a typical security check of the rally site in Pennsylvania where former president Donald Trump was almost assassinated.
In a letter to Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said that the whistleblower told his office that the Secret Service Counter Surveillance Division (CSD) did not perform a threat assessment that day.
“This is significant because CSD’s duties include evaluating potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event,” Hawley said.
“The whistleblower claims that if personnel from CSD had been present at the rally, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder.”
“You acknowledged in your Senate testimony that the American Glass Research complex should have been included in the security perimeter for the Butler event,” he added.
“The whistleblower alleges that because CSD was not present in Butler, this manifest shortcoming was never properly flagged or mitigated.”
According to the whistleblower, Rowe also “personally directed cuts to CSD,” and moved to cut the division’s manpower by up to 20%.
The whistleblower also reportedly told Hawley’s office that agents in the department had been ignored in the past for raising concerns about the agency relying on local law enforcement to secure a golf tournament Trump was in last year.
“The Secret Service takes full responsibility for the tragic events of July 13th,” Rowe told reporters. “This was a mission failure. The sole responsibility of our agency is to make sure our protectees are never put in danger.”
