Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Friday that a whistleblower had told his office that former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday (where he was nearly assassinated) was considered a “loose” security event and that most of the staff were non-Secret Service agents.
Hawley disclosed the information in a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on July 19, writing:
A whistleblower with direct knowledge of the event contacted my office. According to the complaint, the July 13 rally was considered a “lax” security event. For example, sniffer dogs were not used in the usual manner to monitor entry and detect threats; individuals without proper designation were able to enter backstage areas; Department personnel did not adequately guard the security buffer around the podium and were not spaced at consistent intervals around the event’s security perimeter.
Hawley also said the whistleblowers suggested that most of the DHS officials who attended the rally were not US Secret Service (USSS) officers, but rather officers from the DHS’s law enforcement agency, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). internal According to the DHS website.
“This is particularly concerning because, allegedly, HSI agents were unaware of the standard procedures typically used at these types of events,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Mayorkas.
He accused the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service, of not being “appropriately forthright with members of Congress.” He noted that a Secret Service briefing given to senators on Wednesday ended abruptly before most senators had a chance to ask questions.
“This is completely unacceptable behavior and at odds with the public interest in transparency,” he wrote. “In fact, we have learned more from whistleblowers than from your department’s employees.”
He asked Mayorkas to answer the following questions over the next seven days:
1. How did DHS determine staffing for the event, including the decision whether to rely on state or local personnel?
2. What percentage of DHS agents who attended the event were from HSI rather than USSS? Were the majority of personnel who attended the event drawn from HSI or other DHS components rather than USSS? If so, why?
3. Were HSI agents properly trained on staffing these types of events?
4. Were there gaps in the security perimeter and were the usual protocols for the use of dogs and magnetometers observed?
5. Were agents not properly positioned around the podium?
6. Was the standard protocol followed for issuing designated pins to vetted personnel permitted backstage?
7. How long did it take for your agent to be on-site to carry out a site inspection prior to the event? Did paperwork obligations prevent a longer and more thorough site inspection?
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