Secret Service lead site agent in Butler known for incompetence, whistleblowers say
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said that whistleblowers in the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) told him the lead site agent responsible for security at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where former President Donald Trump was shot, had a reputation for incompetence and failed to implement security protocols.
"One whistleblower with direct knowledge of the event alleges to my office that this lead site agent was well-known in campaign circles as lacking competence and experience in the role," Hawley wrote in a letter to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe on Monday.
"This specific allegation follows similar public reports that this agent was 'new' to the local field office and had 'relatively little experience.' The whistleblower alleges that this individual was, as part of securing the site, specifically responsible for line-of-sight concerns," Hawley continued, referring to the inability of one of the countersniper teams to clearly see the roof where 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired on Trump.
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Hawley went on to note he finds it "especially alarming" that the unnamed agent is still "operational" in the field, a fact he described as "increasingly inexplicable."
"I urge you to suspend the lead site agent from all Secret Service duties immediately while these claims are investigated," Hawley wrote.
In an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday night, Hawley revealed that the lead site agent in question is a woman.
Hawley also said that a separate whistleblower told him that the lead site agent "personally made decisions that likely compromised the overall security of the event," such as permitting flags to be placed where they could impinge on the line-of-sight of agents scanning for threats.
The whistleblower also alleged that the USSS "did not check IDs when issuing credentials that authorize access to restricted areas of the site" at Butler, and that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents there told campaign officials they had never staffed a rally before.
Hawley has been at the forefront of lawmakers demanding answers from USSS leadership regarding the security and communication failures that allowed Crooks to clamber onto a roof, shoot Trump, kill 50-year-old rallygoer Corey Comperatore, and critically injure two others.
In a previous letter he sent to Rowe last week on Aug. 1, Hawley said he had been informed by a source within USSS that the rally site in Butler had not been subject to the typical threat assessment protocol, and that the Secret Service Counter Surveillance Division (CSD) was not even present at the location on July 13.
"This is significant because CSD's duties include evaluating potential security threats outside the security perimeter and mitigating those threats during the event," Hawley wrote. "The whistleblower claims that if personnel from CSD had been present at the rally, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder."
Hawley's source further alleged that Rowe was personally responsible for ordering cuts to CDS and reducing its manpower by up to 20%.
On July 30, Rowe joined FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate to testify at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees about the assassination attempt, during which Hawley and Rowe got into a heated exchange about what the senator characterized as a lack of accountability.
Echoing his most recent letter, Hawley asked Rowe at the time for the identity of the lead agent who made the call to leave the roof unguarded, and why the individual had not been fired.
Noting the ongoing nature of the investigation, Rowe expressed reluctance to "make a rush to judgment about somebody failing," which he said might lead to people being "unfairly persecuted."
"Unfairly persecuted? People are dead!" Hawley said as the two shouted over each other.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
