A whistleblower alleged that Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe personally cut security resources and “retaliated” against agents with security concerns leading up to former President Donald Trump’s rally on July 13, according to a letter released Thursday.
The whistleblower alleged that Rowe personally implemented “significant cuts” to the Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), which does advanced threat assessments for venues, and alleged that agents who expressed security concerns were “retaliated against,” according to Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s letter to Rowe. As a result, the CSD failed to perform its “typical evaluation” of the rally venue in Butler County, Pennsylvania, and “was not present on the day” of the attempted assassination.
“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 letter states.
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
“Secret Service personnel expressed alarm that individuals were admitted to the event without vetting,” the letter says. “The whistleblower alleges that those who raised such concerns were retaliated against.”
At the July 13 rally, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to fire shots at the former president from a rooftop just 130 yards away from the stage. Crooks had reportedly been spotted by witnesses, flagged by Secret Service and even was identified by a local counter sniper over an hour and a half before Trump took the stage.
“A whistleblower has alleged to my office that the Secret Service Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), the division that performs threat assessment of event sites before the event occurs, did not perform its typical evaluation of the Butler site and was not present on the day,” the letter states. “This is significant because CSD’s duties include evaluating potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event.”
As a result of these security lapses, Crooks was able to take aim at and injure the former president, kill volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore and injure attendees James Copenhaver and David Dutch, who are both in stable condition.
Rowe testified on Tuesday before a joint hearing held by the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committee after U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on July 23 following her own evasive congressional testimony. Rowe’s testimony was similarly evasive as he left many lawmakers’ questions unanswered.
“You acknowledged in your Senate testimony that the American Glass Research complex should have been included in the security perimeter for the Butler event,” the letter says. “The whistleblower alleges that because CSD was not present in Butler, this manifest shortcoming was never properly flagged or mitigated.”
Despite this, Trump has vowed to continue holding outdoor rallies and said that the Secret Service will “substantially step up” their security detail going forward, according to a post on Truth Social from Saturday.
The Secret Service didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Featured image credit: Screenshot/Rumble/Senate Judiciary Committee
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