It looks like Acting Director for the United States Secret Service Ronald Rowe will be facing more questions about his alleged role in denying additional resources to protect former President Donald Trump. RealClearPolitics’ Susan Crabtree has been documenting the assassination attempt on the former president on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. It’s led to intense scrutiny of the agency, including two tense testimonies before Congress, one of which led to the resignation of Kimberly Cheatle, the former director.
Rowe was asked about the assassination attempt this week before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees. He was also questioned about whether he was involved in denying more resources to Trump’s detail, which he vociferously denied. Now, we have a whistleblower alleging that Rowe was directly involved in cutting off those resources:
🚨🚨 BREAKING: Whistleblower tells @HawleyMO USSS Acting Director Rowe PERSONALLY DIRECTED cuts to the agents who do threat assessments for events.
— Abigail Jackson 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) August 1, 2024
Whistleblower says those agents were NOT present in Butler - and some of them had warned of security problems for months pic.twitter.com/tRNoSYKW3E
🚨🚨WHISTLEBLOWERS UNLEASH ON SECRET SERVICE CHIEF: Rowe Cut Security Assets, Agency Plagued By Systemic Problems, Special Treatment, Nepotism and Retaliation
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) August 2, 2024
NEW: Details of a whistleblower's legal case against the agency, accusing Secret Service managers of special favors,… pic.twitter.com/0tbkOaPFhj
Crabtree has more [emphasis mine]:
Just days after Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe denied playing a direct role in rejecting repeated requests for added security measures and assets for former President Trump, whistleblowers have come forward refuting those claims and blaming Rowe for some of the agency’s security failures that led to the July 13 assassination attempt that nearly killed Trump and left rallygoer Corey Comperatore dead and two others wounded.
Other whistleblowers are coming forward citing more systemic problems with the Secret Service, the vaunted agency whose primary job is to protect presidents, vice presidents and former presidents and their families.
Those deep-seated long-term problems include nepotism and other non-merit-based favoritism, lowering standards and cutting corners in hiring – including failure to pass polygraph tests and accepting past hard drug use, retaliation for voicing security and other concerns, as well as uneven disciplinary action.
Hawley said he had received detailed information that Rowe personally directed “significant cuts” to the Countersurveillance Division, a department that performs threat assessment evaluations of event sites before the events occur and did not perform its typical evaluation of the Butler site and was not present that day.
“This is significant because CSD’s duties include evaluating potential security threats outside the security perimeter,” Hawley wrote, adding that a CSD’s threat assessment likely would have provided more measures to protect the rooftop of the American Glass Research building where shooter Thomas Crooks perched and opened fire on Trump and the crowd.
“The whistleblower claims that if personnel from the CSD had been present at the rally, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder,” Hawley continued. “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 unnamed whistleblower further alleged that Rowe personally directed significant cuts to the CSD, including reducing the division’s manpower by 20%, Hawley asserted. “You did not mention this in your Senate testimony when asked directly to explain manpower reductions.”
The Secret Service had denied that no requests were rejected, though they were later forced to admit that more resources were denied to Mr. Trump. It comes as lawmakers wonder how the rooftop where Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, the shooter, perched could be left unprotected. A new video shows Crooks running on said rooftop moments before he opened fire on Mr. Trump.
New footage of would-be Trump assassin running atop the roof raises further questions. pic.twitter.com/NAq3vkQktt
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 31, 2024
We know that Crooks was ahead of the Secret Service during this attack. He had caught the eye of counter-sniper teams and local SWAT units, but there was a total failure in communications. Trump missed a fatal headshot by millimeters.
