More than a month has passed since former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, and concerns continue to arise about how the Secret Service allowed such a grave incident to happen.
New information reveals that the Secret Service made a series of critical mistakes leading up to the Butler rally, which nearly resulted in the death of the 45th president.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) published a letter detailing allegations from a whistleblower addressed to Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe.
🚨🚨 NEW – Whistleblower says Secret Service HQ told agents working the Butler PA event NOT to request additional manpower resources for the rally & warned any such requests would be denied. Contradicts Director Rowe testimony, who said no resources were ever denied pic.twitter.com/85sHTAI82u
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) August 23, 2024
The whistleblower claimed that high-ranking Secret Service officials instructed field agents not to request extra security for Trump’s rally in Butler.
In his letter, Hawley sought clarification on Rowe’s “evident contradiction” regarding the denial of additional security for the event.
“You must explain this apparent contradiction immediately,” Hawley said.
According to the New York Post, the whistleblower claimed that senior Secret Service officials directed agents managing the Butler event not to request additional security through a manpower request—a formal plea made by lead advance agents prior to trips and sent to the local field office.
This request, which details the required number of personnel and other security assets, is submitted to the Secret Service’s Office of Protective Operations — Manpower for final approval.
Hawley stated that by advising ground agents against making a formal request for extra security, the agency was “effectively denying these resources through informal means.”
The whistleblower alleged that officials reviewing the manpower request “preemptively notified the Pittsburgh field office that the Butler rally would not receive additional security resources because Trump is a former president, not the current President or Vice President.”
“The manpower request did not include extra security resources because agents on the ground were told not to ask for them in the first place,” Hawley said.
The Trump campaign requested counter-sniper teams and counter-surveillance division (CSD) personnel, with the former being approved just a day before the event. However, CSD officials did not attend the rally.
Hawley’s letter follows Rowe’s testimony before Congress, where he stated that “all assets requested were approved” for Trump’s Pennsylvania rally.
On Friday, a Secret Service official was questioned about the whistleblower’s allegations.
In response, an agency spokesperson said that the Secret Service “takes its responsibility to share important information about its protective operations seriously and is cooperating with various reviews and investigations related to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.”
“Given the high volume of requests, the U.S. Secret Service is working to respond to Congressional requests for information through their respective Committee Chairmen with ongoing investigations into the events of the July 13 rally as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson continued.
Hawley disclosed the whistleblower’s allegations just hours after the head of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office and four other agents were put on administrative leave.
