WASHINGTON — The acting director of the Secret Service “personally ordered significant cuts to its threat assessment team” ahead of the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, a Republican senator alleged Friday, citing a whistleblower.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), who confronted Acting Attorney General Ronald Roe at an oversight hearing on the near-assassination on Tuesday, published the whistleblower’s allegations in an open letter to the attorney general.
“A whistleblower has alleged to my office that the Secret Service Countersurveillance Division (CSD), which conducts threat assessments of event venues prior to events, did not conduct its routine assessment of the Butler venue and was not even present on the day of the event.” Holly writes:.
“This is important because CSD’s mission includes assessing potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event,” Politico said. The hearing focused in part on the department’s lack of firing over apparent security failures at the deadly July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“The whistleblower alleges that if CSD officers had been at the rally, the shooter would have been found with a rangefinder and would have been handcuffed in the parking lot,” Hawley wrote.
Lowe said: [his] “Senate testimony has suggested that the security perimeter in the Butler incident should have included the American Glass Research facility,” the senator said, referring to the building where 20-year-old local loner Thomas Crooks was able to climb to the roof and open fire.
“The whistleblower alleges that because Butler did not have a CSD, this glaring deficiency was not adequately warned about or mitigated,” Hawley said.
“The whistleblower further alleges that you personally ordered significant cuts at CSD, reducing the department’s staffing by 20 percent. You did not mention this when asked directly to explain the cuts in your Senate testimony,” the Republicans said.
“The whistleblower also alleges retaliation against Secret Service personnel who raised concerns about security for President Trump’s events. The whistleblower alleges that after an event with the former President at a golf tournament last August, Secret Service agents present expressed serious concerns that the Secret Service’s use of local police was inadequate for security needs, and that local police were not adequately trained for the event or prepared to carry out the tasks assigned to them,” Hawley wrote.
“Furthermore, Secret Service officials expressed concerns that individuals were allowed to attend the event without vetting. The whistleblowers allege that those who raised such concerns were retaliated against,” Hawley said, requesting records to support the whistleblower’s claims.
The Secret Service responded, “We respect senators and our oversight role and will respond to requests through official channels.”
Rowe has led the agency since former director Kim Cheatle resigned following the disaster at the event, where one spectator was shot dead, two were injured and former President Trump suffered a graze injury to his right ear.
