Secret Service chief cut threat-assessment teams before Trump shooting: GOP senator
WASHINGTON — The acting director of the Secret Service “personally directed significant cuts” to threat-assessment teams ahead of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, a GOP senator claimed Friday, citing a whistleblower.
Acting Director Ronald Rowe publicly denied the allegation at a press conference Friday afternoon, saying “I did not.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), who clashed with Rowe at an oversight hearing Tuesday about the near-assassination debacle, published the whistleblower claims in a public letter to the agency chief Friday morning.
“A whistleblower has alleged to my office that the Secret Service Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), the division that performs threat assessment of event sites before the event occurs, did not perform its typical evaluation of the Butler site and was not present on the day,” Hawley wrote.
“This is significant because CSD’s duties include evaluating potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event,” the pol said — three days after the hearing partly focused on the agency’s lack of firings over the glaring security failures at the deadly July 13 Butler, Pa., rally.
“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,” Hawley wrote.
Everything we know about the Trump assassination attempt
- 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified as the shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
- Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
- The gunman grazed Trump’s ear, killed a 50-year-old retired fire chief, and injured two other rally-goers.
- Investigators detailed Crooks’ search history to lawmakers, revealing that he looked for the dates of Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention.
- Crooks’ search history also revealed a broad interest in high-profile people and celebrities, regardless of their political affiliation, FBI officials reportedly said.
- Trump exclusively recounted surviving the “surreal” assassination attempt with The Post at the rally, remarking, “I’m supposed to be dead.”
- High-profile politicians, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the nation about the shooting, calling it “a heinous, horrible and cowardly act.”
Rowe “acknowledged in [his] Senate testimony that the American Glass Research complex should have been included in the security perimeter for the Butler event,” the senator said, referring to a building onto which 20-year-old local loner Thomas Crooks was able to get on the roof and fire from.
The whistleblower “alleges that because CSD was not present in Butler, this manifest shortcoming was never properly flagged or mitigated,” Hawley said.
“The whistleblower further alleges that you personally directed significant cuts to CSD, up to and including reducing the division’s manpower by twenty percent. You did not mention this in your Senate testimony when asked directly to explain manpower reductions,” the GOPer said.
“The whistleblower also alleges retaliation against those within the Secret Service who expressed concern about the security at President Trump’s events. The whistleblower claims that following an event with the former President at a golf tournament in August of last year, Secret Service personnel present expressed serious concern that the Secret Service’s use of local law enforcement was not adequate for security needs: local law enforcement were not properly trained for the event or otherwise prepared to execute the tasks given them,” Hawley wrote.
“Further, Secret Service personnel expressed alarm that individuals were admitted to the event without vetting. The whistleblower alleges that those who raised such concerns were retaliated against,” said Hawley, who requested records that could support the whistleblower allegations.
The Secret Service responded, “We respect the Senator and the role of oversight and will respond to the request through official channels.”
Rowe has led the agency since former Director Kim Cheatle resigned over the event disaster in which one crowd-goer was shot dead, two more were wounded and former President Trump was grazed on his right ear.
