Most of the security personnel working Donald Trump’s event last Saturday, when the former president was nearly assassinated, were not Secret Service agents but, instead, were "unprepared and inexperienced" department agents who were "unfamiliar with standard protocols," whistleblowers told Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.).
"Whistleblower allegations suggest the majority of DHS officials were not in fact USSS agents but instead drawn from the department’s Homeland Security Investigations," Hawley wrote in a letter Friday to Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers to the allegations.
The USSS has faced increased scrutiny since the former president was shot on stage by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was positioned about 400 feet from Trump’s podium on a rooftop with a direct line of sight to the candidate. Rally-goers saw Crooks, armed, on the roof before he took the shot and warned authorities of his presence. Three snipers were in the building he was atop. After Trump was hit, his security detail jumped to cover him, and counter-snipers fatally shot Crooks.
Whistleblowers told Hawley "the July 13 rally was considered to be a ‘loose’ security event," citing that "detection canines were not used … in the usual manner," unauthorized individuals were able to gain backstage access, and "department personnel did not appropriately police the security buffer around the podium."
The Missouri senator fired off seven questions to Mayorkas concerning the protocols and procedures leading up to and during Saturday’s Pennsylvania rally. Hawley noted that DHS has acted "contrary to the public’s interest in transparency," as the department "abruptly end[ed] the only call with USSS before most senators could even ask one question. "
During a White House press briefing this week, Mayorkas said he has "100 percent confidence" in the Secret Service and its director, Kimberly Cheatle. Many Republican party leaders, including House speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and House majority leader Steve Scalise (R., La.), have called on Cheatle to step down since the former president’s life was almost taken.
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Cheatle on Thursday, demanding her to testify about the "security lapses" that led to Saturday’s near-miss.
"The assassination attempt of the former president and current Republican nominee for president represents a total failure of the agency’s core mission and demands congressional oversight," Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, wrote in the subpoena.
The House Judiciary Committee, after speaking privately with USSS whistleblowers, sent a letter Thursday to FBI director Christopher Wray demanding answers to several questions related to the security failings that led to the assassination attempt. The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the matter on Wednesday.
Former U.S. Army sniper and Florida Rep. Cory Mills (R.) said the building Crooks shot from was an "obvious threat," calling the position a "sniper’s paradise."