We've been hearing some incredibly bad information about how the Secret Service handled the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally, where there was an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. Corey Comperatore was killed protecting his family, and two other Trump supporters, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were badly injured.
As a result, Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle was forced to resign after she faced an explosive questioning before the House Oversight Committee, where members from both sides of the aisle just ripped into the failures.
Then Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrecked acting director Ronald Rowe during a grilling before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees this week. Rowe admitted to being ashamed that the roof where the shooter perched wasn't covered by the Secret Service.
But more and more bad Secret Service information seems to keep dropping. Now, Hawley is going nuclear over stunning Secret Service whistleblower information, this time involving Rowe. Hawley wrote Rowe a letter outlining what the whistleblower had told him.
🚨🚨 NEW - Whistleblower tells me Secret Service Acting Director Rowe personally directed cuts to the USSS agents who do threat assessments for events. Whistleblower says those agents were NOT present in Butler - and some of them had warned of security problems for months pic.twitter.com/v9igQ5L7FZ
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) August 1, 2024
Whistleblower tells me Secret Service Acting Director Rowe personally directed cuts to the USSS agents who do threat assessments for events. Whistleblower says those agents were NOT present in Butler - and some of them had warned of security problems for months
According to Hawley's letter, the normal evaluation by the Secret Service Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), the division that performs threat assessment of event sites before the event occurs, was not done.
The whistleblower claims that if personnel from CSD had been present at the rally, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder.
The whistleblower also said it was Rowe who was responsible for cuts to the CSD, reducing the manpower by twenty percent, and he didn't disclose that during his congressional testimony.
The whistleblower explained there were continuing security concerns about how they were dealing with Trump coverage and that people who spoke up about it faced retaliation.
The whistleblower also alleges retaliation against those within the Secret Service who expressed concern about the security at President Trump's events. The whistleblower claims that following an event with the former President at a golf tournament in August of last year, Secret Service personnel present expressed serious concern that the Secret Service's use of local law enforcement was not adequate for security needs: local law enforcement were not properly trained for the event or otherwise prepared to execute the tasks given them. Further, Secret Service personnel expressed alarm that individuals were admitted to the event without vetting. The whistleblower alleges that those who raised such concerns were retaliated against.
Hawley then demanded responses and information about these questions.
One has to ask after all this: Why were they leaving Trump so exposed? Any answer doesn't seem like a good one at this point, but they had better answer up.
If it wasn't clear how much of a failure their coverage was, there's also a stunning video reportedly taken by one of the shooting victims, James Copenhaver. We reported on how Copenhaver was undaunted in his support for Trump and said no one was going to stop him from exercising his rights.
READ MORE: Recovering Trump Assassination Attempt Victim Has 'Sad,' Passionate Message for America
You can see from this angle just how exposed Trump (and Copenhaver) were and you can see a person moving on the roof with a direct line to them. This is what the Secret Service coverage (or lack thereof) allowed.
In the video taken at 6:08 p.m. on July 13, the person appears on the roof of the building adjacent to where Trump is speaking and can be seen walking from the 1:00 second mark to about the 2:50 second mark.
Thomas Crooks allegedly then fired three minutes later, at 6:11.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member