Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. personally directed the cuts to the Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), according to a whistleblower who contacted Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.
As a result, the Secret Service's threat assessment team did not perform its typical duties prior to the demonstration in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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The Republican senator's findings come after lawmakers sparred with agency leaders over growing security lapses at the Pennsylvania rally where former President Trump escaped assassination.
So the man responsible for Trump about to blow his head off on TV is currently the acting director of the USSS.
Beautiful!
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 1, 2024
The CSD, the division that conducts a threat assessment of event sites before the event occurs, did not conduct its assessment prior to the fateful demonstration in western Pennsylvania on July 13. perimeter and mitigate these threats during the event,” Hawley said in a letter to Rowe on Thursday.
The complainant said that if the CSD was performing its normal duties, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks “would have been handcuffed in the parking lot.” “The complainant claims that if CSD personnel had been present at the demonstration, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder,” Hawley wrote to Rowe.
“The complainant alleges that because the CSD was not present at Butler, this glaring deficiency was never properly flagged or mitigated,” he said.
Hawley's office also disclosed Rowe's alleged personal involvement in the downsizing at CSD. “The complainant also alleges that you personally directed significant cuts to CSD, including reducing the division's workforce by twenty percent,” Hawley said. “You didn't mention that in your Senate testimony when you were asked directly to explain the workforce reductions.”
Rowe's leadership also created a cultural problem at the agency, according to the whistleblower, who claimed he threatened retaliation against those who raised safety concerns. “The whistleblower also alleges retaliation against those in the Secret Service who raised security concerns at President Trump's events,” Hawley said. “The whistleblower alleges that following an event with the former president at a golf tournament in August of last year, Secret Service personnel present expressed grave concern that the Secret Service's use of local law enforcement was inadequate for security needs: local security forces were not properly trained for the event or otherwise prepared to execute the tasks assigned.”
“Additionally, Secret Service personnel expressed alarm that people were admitted to the event without verification,” he said. “The complainant alleges that those who raised these concerns were retaliated against.”
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