Teams of U.S. Secret Service agents paired with state and local law enforcement to handle reports of suspicious persons were absent from the location of the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, according to a whistleblower report released by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
In addition to no USSS intelligence units, the hospital where Trump received treatment for being shot in the ear during the July 13 campaign rally was poorly secured, and the hospital site agent could not answer basic questions about site security, the report found.
The allegations join previous findings based on whistleblower disclosures.
Late last month, Hawley said whistleblower accusations claim the Secret Service told agents in charge of the trip to Butler not to request more resources for his rally.
The senator took to X on Aug. 23 and posted a letter sent to Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe, who has "repeatedly suggested that no security assets had been denied for the Butler event."
On Sept. 3, Hawley sent another letter to Rowe and said whistleblower allegations reveal that many of the agents assigned to protect Trump in Butler were Homeland Security agents who had limited training.
News of the new allegation came in a press release Monday night, which cited a 22-page whistleblower report.
Hawley, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released the report one day after Trump survived a second assassination attempt, this time at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The report has been shared with the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump.
Hawley's report also cites unanswered questions about the incident in Butler. The questions include:
- Who, within the Secret Service or DHS, made the decision to deny counter sniper coverage to the rooftop from which Thomas Crooks fired shots?
- When will Secret Service or DHS publicly name the lead site agent for the rally and the lead agent for the Butler visit?
- Did the Acting Secret Service Director ever deny resources to the Trump campaign, or USSS sniper teams, as has been reported in the press?
On Monday night, Haley posted on X that, "Whistleblowers told me that the lead site agent at the Butler rally was someone who wasn't trusted by other Secret Service agents and didn't know what she was doing."
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned July 23 after the agency came under harsh scrutiny for its failure to stop a would-be assassin from wounding Trump in Butler.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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