The Secret Service did not follow its typical protocol to post agents at vulnerable spots at former President Donald Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday which could have identified a second would-be assassin sooner, a whistleblower told Sen. Josh Hawley.
Mr. Hawley, Missouri Republican, sent a letter to Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe detailing the whistleblower’s accusation and asking questions about the security of the golf club.
The whistleblower, who, according to Mr. Hawley, is an individual who has previously protected Mr. Trump at the West Palm Beach golf club, alleges there are “known vulnerabilities” in the fence line surrounding the course that offer a clear line of sight to anyone playing on it.
“As a result, the whistleblower alleges it has been Secret Service protocol to ‘post up’ agents at these vulnerable spots when Trump visits the course,” Mr. Hawley said. “That apparently did not happen on September 15. Instead, the gunman was permitted to remain along or near the fence line for some 12 hours.”
Mr. Rowe said at a news conference on Monday that Mr. Trump’s visit to his golf club on Sunday was an “off the record movement” not on his planned schedule, and the Secret Service had to put together a last-minute security plan.
“There was no posting up of it because he wasn’t supposed to have gone there in the first place,” he said when asked how many times the Secret Service swept the perimeter of the golf course.
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Instead, he said the Secret Service deployed a “layered approach” to security with agents who remained ahead and behind Mr. Trump as he worked his way through the golf course.
An agent who was working the front element “sweeping while the president was behind him several hundred yards and several holes away” spotted the rifle through the bushes and fired at the suspect, Mr. Rowe said.
“The agent’s hypervigilance and the detailed swift action was textbook,” he said, calling the response “exemplary.”
The would-be assassin, Ryan Routh, “did not have line of sight to the former president” and “did not fire or get off any shots,” Mr. Rowe said.
Mr. Hawley said it was unclear from Mr. Rowe’s comments at the press conference “whether agents swept the perimeter of the golf course at any point, or whether drones were used to surveil the fence line.”
Mr. Rowe said counter drones were used at the golf course, along with a counter sniper team and counter surveillance agents on the exterior — all part of enhanced security President Biden ordered for Mr. Trump after the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania — but he did not explain where those assets were deployed.
“The reality is that the would-be assassin should never have been able to linger around the course for that long undetected,” Mr. Hawley said.
In the letter, he asked Mr. Rowe whether the Secret Service ever swept the perimeter of the golf course and to explain any use of drones and how the counter surveillance personnel were deployed.
“Why did they not detect the gunman sooner?” he said. “What was the specific counter surveillance mitigation plan for the known vulnerabilities outside the fence line that day?”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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