Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) revealed Thursday that a Secret Service whistleblower has alleged that Interim Secret Service Director Ronald Roe cut personnel who could have helped thwart an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and retaliated against people who raised concerns about security at Trump events.
August 1, 2024, Letter to RoweHawley said the whistleblower alleged that the CIA’s Countersurveillance Division (CSD) did not conduct its usual assessment of the venue of President Trump’s July 13 campaign rally and did not attend the rally.
“This is important because CSD’s mission includes assessing potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event,” Hawley said.
“The whistleblower alleges that if CSD officers had been present at the rally, the shooter would have been found with a rangefinder and would have been handcuffed in the parking lot,” he added.
Hawley also said the whistleblower alleged the Secret Service could have warned or mitigated the risk that a gunman from outside the Secret Service perimeter could have left the building where he fired shots at Trump.
Hawley said the whistleblower alleged that Rowe “personally directed significant cuts to CSD,” including a 20 percent reduction in the department’s staffing, something Rowe did not mention in his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday.
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Oversight and Accountability Committee
Hawley also said the whistleblower alleged retaliation against Secret Service officials who raised concerns about security at Trump events.
“The whistleblower alleges that after a meeting with the former president at a golf tournament last August, Secret Service agents present expressed serious concerns that the Secret Service was under-utilizing local police forces to provide security, who were not adequately trained for the event or prepared to carry out their assigned tasks,” Hawley said.
“Additionally, Secret Service officials expressed concerns that individuals were allowed to attend the event without vetting, and the whistleblower alleges that those who raised such concerns were subjected to retaliation,” he added.
Hawley asked Rowe to turn over all records by Aug. 8, including any policy or personnel changes made to CSD, his own involvement in changing or revising those policies, and the number of Secret Service agents disciplined after raising concerns about the Secret Service’s security practices.
Hawley also asked for an exact breakdown of Secret Service agents, by department or unit, who attended the July 13 rally.
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