Did the head of the embattled U.S. Secret Service lie to Congress when he testified that all manpower requested to protect former President Trump had been approved for the event where the GOP presidential nominee came within centimeters of being assassinated?
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wants answers after a whistleblower told the Missouri Republican that agents on the Trump detail shouldn’t even bother asking for key manpower because the request would be denied.
The latest revelations come as several news outlets confirm the Secret Service has placed at least five members on administrative leave in the wake of the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life at a campaign rally in Butler, Penn.
Request Denied?
“I have received new whistleblower allegations that again call into question your recent testimony before the Senate,” Hawley, who serves on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter Friday to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe. “One whistleblower with knowledge of Secret Service planning for former President Trump‘s trip to Butler, Pennsylvania, alleges officials at Secret Service headquarters encouraged agents in charge of the trip not to request any additional security assets in its formal manpower request — effectively denying these assets through informal means.”
Rowe, as Hawley notes, has “repeatedly suggested” that the protective services agency he’s been tapped to lead following last month’s resignation of disgraced Director Kimberly Cheatle had not denied any “assets” requested.
Trump was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin who was allowed to freely roam the rally grounds for hours despite arousing suspicions and alarms from local law enforcement. The gunman shot and killed rallygoer Corey Comperatore and seriously injured two others before being fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper. Questions abound about one of the most astounding failures in the agency’s history, not the least of which is how a young man carrying a duffle bag and a range finder was able to ascend the roof of a nearby building to carry out his deadly errand?
Several investigations, including congressional probes, are attempting to get answers from recalcitrant federal agencies that have struggled with transparency and have had a hard time keeping their stories straight.
Hawley and others have understandably asked why the Secret Service was so ill-prepared on the day of the shootings. The latest whistleblower accounts suggest the failures may have been wilful.
Hawley said the whistleblower told him that the lead advance agent for protective events typically submits a manpower request to the local field office. The request usually includes the number of agents and other resources needed. It’s submitted to the U.S. Secret Service Office of Protective Operations (OPO-Manpower) for final approval, the senator wrote.
“According to the allegations, officials within this office, preemptively informed the Pittsburgh Field Office that the Butler rally was not going to receive additional security resources because Trump is a former president and not the incumbent president or vice president,” Hawley states in the letter. This, despite the unhinged hatred by many on the left for the opposition party’s candidate for president.
“According to the whistleblower, the manpower request did not include extra security resources because agents on the ground were told not to ask for them in the first place,” Hawley added.
‘Very Transparent and Forthcoming’
The manpower request, the whistleblower told Hawley, included counter-sniper teams and Counter Surveillance Division (CSD) personnel. Counter-snipers ultimately were approved, according to reports, but not until the day prior to the political rally. The short notice gave the agents insufficient time to scout the grounds, Hawley said.
“I have previously written you about a separate whistleblower’s allegations to my office that personnel from CSD would have handcuffed the gunman in the parking lot after he was spotted with a range finder, but they were not present on the day,” the senator wrote. “You stated in an August 2 press conference that CSD personnel support former presidents‘ details ‘when requested.’ But these new allegations suggest that CSD personnel, counter-sniper teams, and other critical security assets were not included in the manpower request for the Butler trip because Secret Service officials told the requesting agents that they would be denied.”
As Hawley points out, the new allegations surface despite Rowe’s July 30 testimony before the Senate in which the acting director stated, “If you’re talking about Butler, Penn., all assets requested were approved.” Rowe has insisted that he has been “very transparent and forthcoming” with congress.
That’s not how Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sees it. The ranking member of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations tells The Federalist he’s not surprised by the latest whistleblower accounts.
“If you wanted more conspiracy theories, you couldn’t do a better job at creating them than what the Secret Service and the FBI are doing right now,” Johnson said Friday in an interview. “It seems like they’re hiding something. And you have to ask yourself, why?”
Johnson says he and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chairman of the investigations subcommittee, have been pushing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service, FBI, and others for answers. They’re getting stonewalled. He said Rowe told senators he would have answers to their questions in days; it’s been weeks.
“These people simply don’t believe they need to be held accountable. They are the law unto themselves,” the senator said.
‘Not Enough’
As Fox News and other outlets reported, the Secret Service has taken off active duty a member of Trump’s personal protective unit and “four members of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh Field Office, including the special agent in charge.” They reportedly continue to telework, but are not allowed to be in the field.
Secret Service officials did not immediately respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
In his letter to Rowe, Hawley warns the acting Secret Service chief that placing some field agents on leave is “not enough.”
“The serious allegations suggest that the failure to protect the former president extended to top officials at the agency,” the senator said, demanding that Rowe answer questions about the manpower request and who was involved at the field office.