The Secret Service relied in part on Homeland Security Investigations agents who had just two hours of training to provide protective detail to former President Donald Trump at the July 13 rally where he was nearly assassinated, according to whistleblower allegations.
Whistleblowers who have come forward to Sen. Josh Hawley say Homeland Security Investigations agents have been pulled off their assigned duties, including child exploitation cases, to help the Secret Service provide protective detail to presidential candidates, including Mr. Trump.
Mr. Hawley, Missouri Republican, said whistleblowers have told him that more Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents than Secret Service agents were working Mr. Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Many of the HSI agents had never worked a protective detail and did not know proper procedure, the whistleblowers said.
HSI agents who are being reassigned to protective detail reportedly receive only two hours of training from the Secret Service through a webinar of recorded videos.
Mr. Hawley said one whistleblower told him the videos “were not substantive and their playback was frequently riddled with technical mishaps, leaving the HSI agents ill-prepared for the protective mission to which they were newly assigned.”
The whistleblower said the webinar training has not been updated since the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Hawley detailed the whistleblower claims in a letter sent to acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe.
“All of these allegations together suggest that a significant number of personnel tasked with providing security for former President Trump at the July 13 rally were egregiously under-prepared by the Secret Service to carry out this mission,” he wrote.
The Secret Service did not directly address the claims in response to a request for comment.
“The U.S. Secret Service respects the role of oversight. To date, we have provided over 1,500 pages of responsive documentation to Congress and have made employees available for transcribed interviews,” said Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications. “These efforts will continue as our desire to learn from this failure and ensure that it never happens again is unwavering.”
In his letter, Mr. Hawley asked Mr. Rowe a handful of questions, including how many HSI agents worked the rally and how many of those agents were trained using the two-hour webinar. He also asked him to confirm whether HSI agents had been reassigned from child exploitation cases to assist with protective details, and if so, how many.
The missive is one in a series of letters Mr. Hawley has sent to Secret Service and Homeland Security Department leaders detailing whistleblower allegations about the protective agency’s perceived shortcomings.
Mr. Hawley serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is investigating the assassination attempt.
A bipartisan House task force that is also investigating the matter sent letters this week to local law enforcement agencies that helped the Secret Service provide security for the rally. It has asked for all documents and communications related to the event.
The letters, which went out to the Butler Township Police Department, the Butler County Sheriff’s Department, the Butler County Emergency Services unit and the Beaver County Emergency Services unit, also asked for transcribed interviews with specific individuals by Sept. 30. The individuals’ names were redacted in the versions of the letters released publicly.
The task force also sent a letter to the Butler County coroner, who recovered the shooter’s body after he was killed by a Secret Service sniper, and the Allegheny County medical examiner, who conducted the autopsy, requesting their reports on the would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks.
These letters follow one the task force sent last week asking Homeland Security Department and Secret Service leaders for various documents and communications, including transcripts of any interviews they have conducted in their internal probe of the assassination attempt. The panel also requested transcribed interviews with the lead Secret Service agents who provided security at the rally.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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