Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) revealed on Friday that U.S. Secret Service whistleblowers approached his office to inform him the agency assigned Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel who were not part of the Secret Service to protect former President Donald Trump during the Pennsylvania rally where he suffered an assassination attempt.
In addition to the claim about questionable staffing, Hawley wrote in his Friday letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that whistleblowers with “direct knowledge of the event” told his office the agency also treated Trump’s rally as “loose” security.
According to Hawley, the whistleblowers told him this means “detection canines were not used to monitor entry and detect threats in the usual manner,” and people “without proper designations” managed to secure backstage access.
Trump was ultimately shot in his right ear by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who also killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore. Two more were injured during the attempted assassination.
He added that neither Secret Service nor DHS personnel, according to the whistleblowers, “appropriately” guarded “the security buffer around the podium,” nor were they “stationed at regular intervals around the event’s security perimeter.”
Hawley then returned to the whistleblowers’ claim that “the majority” of DHS personnel at the event were not affiliated with the Secret Service, but rather “drawn” from DHS’ internal Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) department.
“This is especially concerning given that HSI agents were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events,” Hawley added, citing the whistleblowers who approached his office.
🚨🚨 Whistleblowers tell me that MOST of Trump’s security detail working the event last Saturday were not even Secret Service. DHS assigned unprepared and inexperienced personnel 👇 pic.twitter.com/eo4jNmJWFT
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 19, 2024
The senator also provided new details about the conference call between Secret Service and senators, during which several were prohibited from asking questions, revealing it was ended “abruptly” and “before most senators could even ask a question.”
Hawley, who noted his position on the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asked the agency to explain how it determined staffing decisions at the July 13 rally, and additionally demanded answers about the training afforded to those present and security measures taken prior to the event.
The letter from Hawley comes days after Real Clear Politics reported, citing sources close to the agency, that Secret Service resources were spread thin prior to the assassination attempt because Vice President Kamala Harris and First Lady Jill Biden were both holding simultaneous events in Pennsylvania, but a spokesman for the agency claimed this information “is very wrong.”
According to the outlet, Secret Service required assistance from other DHS personnel and local law enforcement because “many special agents in Trump’s regular protective detail were overburdened and needed to take time off after working several consecutive seven-day weeks.”
Reporter Susan Crabtree, who authored the article for Real Clear Politics, later reported on the social media platform X that a source claimed the Secret Service agent in charge of security for Trump’s rally was “a brand new agent” who had “very little experience.”
Crabtree reported, “they filled out a hodge-podge team of agents from different field offices who have either never or rarely work together.”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has thus far resisted calls for her resignation despite claiming the “buck stops” at her position.
Cheatle turned and walked away from U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and a number of her colleagues on Wednesday when the senators confronted the director in a luxury booth at the Fiserv Forum during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “United States Secret Service” by United States Secret Service.
