While there were more questions than answers on Monday about the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in 64 days, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (MO) released a damning whistleblower report on the condemnable failures of the U.S. Secret Service and Homeland Security Department that led to the July 13 shooting that came within millimeters taking Trump’s life.
Hawley, having found a “compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding,” shared the report with the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination to supplement its investigation. He also said:
On July 13, 2024, former President Donald J. Trump was nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet while hosting a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Secret Service failed to prevent it,” the Hawley report states. “It was the most stunning breakdown in presidential security since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.”
The senator, who currently serves on four Senate committees, including Judiciary and Homeland Security, also announced his release of the whistleblower report on X.
Following the latest assassination attempt on @realDonaldTrump, I’m releasing a comprehensive Whistleblower Report on the multiple failures of Secret Service & DHS – including new allegations & numerous unanswered questions due to USSS stonewalling.
Stonewalling, indeed.
🚨🚨 NEW – Following the latest assassination attempt on @realDonaldTrump, I’m releasing a comprehensive Whistleblower Report on the multiple failures of Secret Service & DHS – including new allegations & numerous unanswered questions due to USSS stonewalling pic.twitter.com/Rxcim9N05U
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 16, 2024
According to Hawley’s release, the report is “highly damaging to the credibility of the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”
Among the report’s most shocking findings:
- The lead agent responsible for Trump’s Butler visit, including the campaign rally, “failed a key examination” during federal law enforcement training to become a Secret Service agent.
- Secret Service intelligence units, which are teams of Secret Service agents paired with state and local law enforcement personnel to handle reports of suspicious persons, were absent from the Butler rally.
- The hospital site where Trump received treatment after the shooting was “poorly secured,” and the agent on-site “could not answer basic questions about site security.”
- A majority of DHS agents working the rally were unfamiliar with standard security protocols used at campaign events.
- The only training received by many of the DHS agents reassigned to work security details was a single two-hour webinar on Microsoft Teams featuring pre-recorded videos.
Almost worse, Hawley said the Secret Service, FBI, and DHS “have all tried to evade real accountability.”
The report further states:
These agencies and their leaders have slow-walked congressional investigations, misled the American people, and shirked responsibility. The resulting findings are highly damaging to the credibility of the Secret Service and DHS.
It gets worse. The report also found:
- Law enforcement was supposed to be stationed on the rooftop where Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump; however, the post was abandoned because “it was too hot.”
- Secret Service denied multiple offers from a local law enforcement partner to deploy drone technology to help secure the rally despite the fact that Crooks used a drone to survey the site hours before Trump took the stage in preparation for his attack.
- The Secret Service’s Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), which performs threat assessment of sites prior to an event’s occurrence, did not perform its typical evaluation of the Butler fairgrounds nor was present on the day of the rally. If the CSD had been there, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot upon being spotted with a rangefinder.
- The Secret Service’s lead site agent responsible for mitigating line-of-sight concerns at the Butler rally was “known to lack competence and experience in the role.”
Kimberly Cheatle, who was the director of the Secret Service at the time of the rally, resigned amid mounting pressure from congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle after the massive security failure.
ALSO READ:
You’re Fired! Another Secret Service Official ‘Retiring’ in Aftermath of Trump Assassination Attempt
Josh Hawley Wrecks Acting Secret Service Director Over Agency’s Trump Assassination Attempt Posturing
The Bottom Line
I don’t want to be flippant here, but to paraphrase an old saying, with “friends” like the Secret Service and DHS, Donald Trump doesn’t need enemies.
