A whistleblower has accused Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe of slashing security resources and retaliating against agents who raised concerns about security ahead of former President Donald Trump's rally on July 13.
According to the whistleblower, Rowe personally made "significant cuts" to the Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), which is responsible for conducting advanced threat assessments for event venues. The whistleblower claims that agents who voiced their security concerns faced retaliation, and as a result, the CSD did not perform its usual evaluation of the rally site in Butler County, Pa., and was absent on the day the assassination attempt occurred. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) detailed the allegations in a letter to Rowe.
"Since your testimony before the Senate of July 30, new and disturbing information has come to light about Secret Service planning for the Butler, Pennsylvania Trump campaign event — and your own involvement," his letter begins.
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. This is significant because CSD's duties include evaluating potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event. 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. 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 whistleblower alleges that because CSD was not present in Butler, this manifest shortcoming was never properly flagged or mitigated.
The whistleblower further alleges that you personally directed significant cuts to CSD, up to and including reducing the division's manpower by twenty percent. You did not mention this in your Senate testimony when asked directly to explain manpower reductions.
The whistleblower also alleges retaliation against those within the Secret Service who expressed concern about the security at President Trump's events.
🚨🚨 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
Security lapses at the rally last month allowed a lone gunman to nearly kill Trump, critically injure two others, and kill volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore. These allegations are perhaps the most frightening development because they support past allegations that the lax security for the rally was politically motivated.
"I also talked to President Trump's detail months and months ago, and I asked them if they were doing okay, and they told me they were having trouble getting the resources they needed," Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) told Fox News last month. "And you know, they felt at the time that it was politically motivated."
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No one wants to believe that the Secret Service intentionally left Trump vulnerable, yet evidence keeps piling up that this was the case. This is the kind of stuff we once thought was only possible in third-world countries. Sadly, it's looking increasingly likely that this is becoming a reality in the United States of America.
I hope I'm wrong.
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