“According to one whistleblower, the night before the rally, U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in a letter sent to the head of U.S. Homeland Security Thursday.
In the letter, Hawley called for the department to turn over information about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pa. Specifically, he called for all records concerning the United States Secret Service’s availability or use of drones.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old nursing home employee, grazed Trump’s ear with a bullet meant to go through his head as he addressed the crowd. Crooks was perched at the top of a nearby building – reports have indicated that photos of him were snapped shortly before the shooting and that event attendees warned authorities about a person on top of the American Glass Research building.
“According to reports, the shooter used a drone to survey the site in preparation for his attack. This was confirmed by FBI Director Christopher Wray in his testimony just yesterday,” said Hawley in his letter. “In fact, he confirmed that the shooter was operating the drone approximately two hours before President Trump took the stage.”
After the shooting, people quickly began to question why the Secret Service was not able to prevent the attack. In addition to injuring Trump, Crooks injured two others and killed 50-year-old former fire chief Corey Comperatore.
Some conservatives blamed the Secret Service’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), including controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who called Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle a “DEI hire” said she should resign.
“It is an insult to the women of our agency to imply that they are unqualified based on gender. Such baseless assertions undermine the professionalism, dedication and expertise of our workforce,” said Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s chief of communication, in a statement cited by NBC News.
This Monday, Chealte provided written testimony to the Oversight Committee on the Attempted Assassination of Former President Trump. She called the incident “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” and said that she took full responsibility for the “security lapse.”
“We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like July 13th does not happen again,” said Cheatle, who noted that the Secret Service protects 36 individuals on a daily basis. “Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my thoughts.”
ABC News reported Tuesday that Cheatle announced her resignation that morning in an email to Secret Service employees obtained by the outlet. After this came out, so did more news about the Butler shooting.
Audacy reported Thursday that “shocking new footage released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) shows local police and Secret Service agents standing over the body of Thomas Matthew Crooks as they worked to identify the shooter who attempted to assassinate former President Trump.”
In the video, “one man who appears to be a Secret Service agent can be seen talking with a Beaver County Emergency Service Unit,” and “tells the officer that Crooks’ body appeared to be the suspicious person who was previously reported to them.”
Hawley said in his letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that the while Secret Service denied an opportunity to use a drone to surveil the Butler scene before the shooting, it “changed course” and asked the local partner to deploy the drone afterwards.
“It is hard to understand why USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered, particularly given the fact USSS permitted the shooter to overfly the rally area with his own drone mere hours before event,” Hawley said. “The failure to deploy drone technology is all the more concerning since, according to the whistleblower, the drones USSS was offered had the capability not only to identify active shooters but also to help neutralize them.”
According to the National Review, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (which Hawley is a member of) will hold a hearing next week on the Trump assassination attempt. The Secret Service referred the outlet to the DHS in response to a request for comment.
“DHS responds to congressional requests directly via official channels, and the Department will continue to respond appropriately to congressional oversight. We are committed to working with the appropriate and relevant investigations of what happened on July 13, including with Congress, the Inspector General, and both internal and independent reviews,” said a DHS spokesperson, per the National Review.