A whistleblower is claiming that the lead Secret Service agent in charge of Donald Trump’s deadly Butler, Pennsylvania, rally was ‘inexperienced’ and ‘failed to implement appropriate security protocols.’
The complaint comes weeks after 20-year-old murderer Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump from a ‘perfect location’ in relatively close range to the former president as he spoke at the July 13 campaign rally.
Crooks hit Trump, injuring him and two others, along with fatally wounding firefighter Corey Comperatore.
The shocking new testimony comes from a whistleblower with direct knowledge of the event, according to a letter provided to DailyMail.com from the office of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
Concerned over this lead agent, who is ‘still doing protective visits,’ Hawley is now demanding in a letter to Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe that the ‘ineffective’ lead site agent be suspended and investigated immediately.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is covered by U.S. Secret Service agents at his deadly Butler campaign rally. Sen. Josh Hawley revealed whistleblower testimony Monday evening that the Secret Service lead site agent is allegedly ‘incompetent’
‘Your refusal to hold this individual accountable is increasingly inexplicable,’ Hawley wrote in the letter to the Secret Service boss.
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‘The sheer failure of the Secret Service on July 13th is beyond measure,’ Hawley told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘Why has no one been held accountable? Why has no one been fired? The more whistleblowers tell me, the more unbelievable it is that the former President and more Americans aren’t dead.’
‘They need to suspend the lead site agent, get them out of the field, and give us answers.’
A separate whistleblower told Hawley that the same lead site agent ‘personally made decisions that likely compromised the overall security of the event.’
‘The site agent, the lead agent, was known to the Trump campaign to be inexperienced, to be ineffectual, to be, frankly, incompetent at their job,’ Hawley told Fox News’ Jesse Watters Monday evening.
‘I’m also told by whistleblowers that on that day, she was not enforcing the normal security protocols.’
The Missouri senator noted a slew of concerning abnormalities with the tragic rally from flags that obstructed agents’ views to authorities forgoing ID checks.
‘First, campaign material such as flags were permitted to be placed around the stage and catwalk used by the former president, despite the fact that these items were typically prohibited because of how they affected the line-of-sigh of those agents responsible for identifying threats,’ Hawley wrote.
‘Second, the Secret Service did not check IDs when issuing credentials that authorize access to the restricted areas of the site,’ which the Republican said is ‘contrary to typical practice.’
‘Third, the whistleblower alleges that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents at the July 13 event told campaign officials that they had never staffed a rally before and did not know proper procedure.’
Towards the end of the letter Hawley, whose office has received a deluge of whistleblower material since the assassination attempt, struck an incredulous tone.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote in a letter to Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe that he wants the lead site agent for the Butler rally to be suspended and investigated, according to a letter he sent the agency chief Monday evening
‘These allegations raise serious questions about the lead site agent’s conduct – and individual you have so far refused to hold accountable.’
‘You are also jeopardizing the security of protectees by allowing this individual to continue working.’
The senator demanded responses to his questions and request for the agent’s suspension by August 12.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe revealed failures from the day former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated in a CSPAN interview on Friday.
Rowe also revealed that nobody has been fired yet over Trump’s near-death experience.
The acting director explained that Secret Service officials had no radio communications with local police and weren’t aware Thomas Matthew Crooks had a gun aimed at the ex-president before he opened fire.
Rowe confirmed that ‘there was somebody who did, in fact radio out that they had seen the individual with a weapon.’
‘What I can tell you is that piece of information, that vital piece of information, and by no fault of anyone, it was a very stressful situation, it did not make it over,’ Rowe said.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe revealed failures Friday from the day former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated while speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by his Secret Service detail moments after a bullet brushed his ear at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
Having had a steady stream of whistleblower complaints, this is the senator’s third public letter highlighting private information from those with intimate knowledge of the first presidential assassination attempts in decades.
Last week Hawley revealed in a letter that a whistleblower informed him the Secret Service’s Counter Surveillance Division – the unit tasked with evaluating event sites in advance – was not present at the deadly rally and never performed a ‘typical evaluation’ before the event.
In addition, the source alleges that Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, the freshly minted agency chief after former boss Kimberly Cheatle resigned, is at fault for the huge oversight.
Rowe ‘personally directed significant cuts to CSD,’ the whistleblower said.
The new boss was also personally responsible for slashing the counter surveillance team manpower 20 percent, the whistleblower added.
All of the allegations outlined by the whistleblower were revealed in a letter Hawley sent to Rowe himself last week.
After a blistering six hours of testimony former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle handed over her resignation last week
Snippers stand on a roof at Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign rally
‘The whistleblower also alleges retaliation against those within the Secret Service who expressed concerns about the security at President Trump’s events,’ the Missouri senator told the acting director.
Rowe has only been in the job for a week after Cheatle resigned two weeks ago following a bruising hearing before Congress.
She repeatedly refused to provide new insight into the historic murder attempt yet she stonewalled both Republicans and Democrats, earning scorn and verbal beat downs from both sides of the aisle.
Similarly devastating is the discovery of a technical flaw that led to radio signals not properly transmitting between Secret Service agents at the rally, the New York Times reports.
The bug helped Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks sneak around the rally site freely as officers’ communications were inconsistent and ineffective.
An agent was able to yell out ‘Long gun!’ over the local Pennsylvania law enforcement radio network.
But a critical 30 seconds ticked by and the message was never heard.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024
The report indicates that there were multiple instances of counter measure tool malfunction and improper deployment.
The agency, for example, turned down offers to use drone technology at the rally location, whistleblowers previously disclosed to Hawley, which published in another letter.
He revealed that one whistleblower had told his office the night before the rally Secret Service ‘repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally.’
The whistleblower alleged that after the shooting Secret Service ‘changed course and asked the local partner to deploy the drone technology to surveil the site in the aftermath.’
The drones that were offered ‘had the ability not only to identify active shooters but to neutralize them,’ according to Hawley.
Investigations into the shooting are still ongoing and a special congressional task force has been established by Speaker Mike Johnson to continue probing the oversights from that fateful day.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are also investigating the assassination attempt.