A new whistleblower report claims that the U.S. Secret Service refused local law enforcement offers to have drone security at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The allegation comes after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed that would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks flew a reconnaissance drone in the area just hours before the campaign rally.
Sharing a copy of a letter he sent on Thursday to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) highlighted new allegations from an anonymous whistleblower.
Hawley tweeted, “Whistleblower tells me local law enforcement partners & suppliers offered drones to Secret Service BEFORE the rally – but Secret Service declined.”
In his letter to Mayorkas, Hawley said a whistleblower said the Secret Service “repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally” the night before Trump’s Pennsylvania rally. In light of the whistleblower’s testimony, the Missouri senator said, “This means that the technology was both available to [U.S. Secret Service] and able to be deployed to secure the site.”
Despite having drone technology available, Hawley said the Secret Service said “no” to the offer. He added that the whistleblower also claimed that the Secret Service later requested the deployment of drone technology after the assassination attempt to “surveil the site in the aftermath of the attack.”
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According to The Federalist, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed a report by The Wall Street Journal that claimed Crooks had flown a reconnaissance drone approximately 200 yards from the Trump rally’s outdoor venue in Butler about two hours before the event.
“We think, but we do not know,” Wray said during Wednesday’s hearing, “that he was live-streaming, viewing the footage.”
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Crooks flew the drone on a “programmed flight path,” suggesting that the would-be assassin could have flown the drone multiple times as he prepared his assassination attempt at the rally venue.
The Federalist reported that The House of Representatives unanimously voted on Wednesday to create a bipartisan commission to further investigate the July 13 assassination attempt against the former president.
