Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced on Thursday that a whistleblower has claimed acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe “directed cuts” to security resources and “retaliated” against agents who expressed concerns prior to the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Hawley shared a letter he sent on Thursday to Rowe, demanding answers pertaining to the whistleblower’s new allegations.
“Whistleblower tells me Secret Service Acting Director Rowe personally directed cuts to the USSS agents who do threat assessments for events,” Hawley tweeted. “Whistleblower says those agents were NOT present in Butler – and some of them had warned of security problems for months.”
In his letter to Rowe, Hawley explained that “new and disturbing information” had been revealed following the acting director’s testimony at Tuesday’s joint hearing with the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committee. Hawley said a whistleblower claimed that Roe “personally directed significant cuts” to the Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), which typically performs advanced threat assessments.
According to the whistleblower, the CSD “was not present on the day” of Trump’s Pennsylvania rally and did not complete its “typical evaluation” of the outdoor venue. Hawley said the allegation was “significant” since the CSD’s responsibilities include assessing potential threats to security outside the main security perimeter and addressing potential threats throughout events.
“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 wrote.
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Hawley also shared that the whistleblower claimed agents with security concerns regarding Trump events were “retaliated against.” Pointing to a golf tournament featuring Trump last August, Hawley said, “Secret Service personnel expressed alarm that individuals were admitted to the event without vetting. The whistleblower alleges that those who raised such concerns were retaliated against.”
Due to the Secret Service’s failure to secure the Butler rally venue, would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to shoot the former president in the ear, kill retired fire chief Corey Comperatore, and severely injure two other Trump rally attendees.
As the acting director of the Secret Service following former director Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation on July 23, Rowe testified regarding the assassination attempt during Tuesday’s joint hearing.
“You acknowledged in your Senate testimony that the American Glass Research complex should have been included in the security perimeter for the Butler event,” Hawley wrote. “The whistleblower alleges that because CSD was not present in Butler, this manifest shortcoming was never properly flagged or mitigated.”
