Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Monday released the latest in a series of whistleblower allegations on failed security measures during the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The accusations revealed by Hawley, detailed in a broader whistleblower allegation report, state that the hospital where Trump was treated after being shot in July at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was poorly secured, the event lacked designated personnel to handle suspicious persons reports, and the lead Secret Service agent in charge was a woman who previously failed an exam during training.
Hawley’s office described the string of findings uncovered by whistleblowers since the incident as “highly damaging to the credibility” of the Secret Service and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.
“They reveal a compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding,” according to Hawley’s office.
The Secret Service said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that it was “aware of the senator’s report and will continue to work with congressional oversight committees in both the House and the Senate.”
The female lead agent was not identified by name. Hawley’s whistleblower also said the agent tasked with hospital site security “could not answer basic questions” and that the absence of Secret Service “intelligence units” to handle suspicious persons at the rally should have comprised teams of Secret Service agents paired with state and local law enforcement.
The latest disclosures came the day after a second would-be assassin on Sunday made an attempt on Trump’s life, this time at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Police have charged 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh with federal gun possession-related crimes after he allegedly established a firing position with an AK-style rifle along the golf course’s perimeter. Routh fled upon a Secret Service agent opening fire, and he was later arrested a few dozen miles away along Interstate 95.
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Hawley has previously revealed other whistleblower allegations about the Secret Service’s handling of the Butler rally, including that the agency declined to deploy drones beforehand to help secure the rally site and that it failed to properly train agents assigned to protective details.
Hawley has referred all of his findings to the bipartisan House task force investigating the first assassination attempt to supplement its inquiry.