A Secret Service department that handles manpower requests urged agents not to ask for additional security for the rally where an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump occurred, according to a whistleblower report.
The whistleblower told Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that the Secret Service Office of Protective Operations — Manpower essentially denied security assets “through informal means” by encouraging agents not to seek more manpower for the rally, Hawley wrote in a letter on Friday to Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe.
Hawley accused Rowe of giving inaccurate testimony when he appeared before the Senate in July and faced questions about the assassination attempt.
“If you’re talking about Butler, Pennsylvania, all assets requested were approved,” Rowe had testified.
Hawley said Rowe “must explain this apparent contradiction immediately” and asked the acting director to answer numerous questions about the event.
The rally on July 13 marked the most significant security failure by the Secret Service in decades. A 20-year-old gunman was able to access a roof in close proximity to Trump and fire shots into the crowd, leaving one dead, two seriously injured, and Trump with a minor injury.
Agents responsible for protecting Trump at the rally made a routine manpower request ahead of the event but did not ask for countersniper teams or Counter Surveillance Division personnel, Hawley wrote. Hawley said the end result was that field agents did not receive these assets until the last minute, leaving little time for the added security personnel to prepare for the rally.
“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 said.
The Missouri senator’s letter comes after former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned over the assassination attempt and after the Secret Service recently placed five agents on administrative leave over the incident.
Hawley said the actions were insufficient and that the whistleblower allegation indicated that other Secret Service employees at a higher level contributed to the rally failures.
“Your actions to place some field agents on leave are not enough,” Hawley wrote. “These serious allegations suggest that the failures to protect the former president extended to top officials at the agency.”
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In a statement provided to the Washington Examiner, the Secret Service said it was working through an influx of congressional demands and plans to respond to them "as quickly as possible."
"The U.S. Secret Service takes seriously its responsibility to share important information about its protective operations and is cooperating with a wide range of reviews and investigations related to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump," spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said. "Given the high volume of requests, the U.S. Secret Service is working to respond to Congressional requests for information through their respective Committee Chairmen with ongoing investigations into the events of the July 13th rally as quickly as possible."
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