The whistleblower accounts were included in a letter from Senator Josh Hawley to DHS secretary Mayorkas.
More whistleblowers are coming forward with damning allegations about the law-enforcement failures surrounding the failed assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
Whistleblowers with “direct knowledge” of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) handling of the Trump rally in Butler, Pa., last weekend came forward to Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) alleging that the rally was a “loose” security event featuring personnel drawn from a different wing of DHS who were not trained for such an event.
“Whistleblowers who have direct knowledge of the event have approached my office. According to the allegations, the July 13 rally was considered to be a ‘loose’ security event. For example, detection canines were not used to monitor entry and detect threats in the usual manner. Individuals without proper designations were able to gain access to backstage areas. Department personnel did not appropriately police the security buffer around the podium and were also not stationed at regular intervals around the event’s security perimeter,” Hawley wrote in a letter sent Friday to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“In addition, whistleblower allegations suggest the majority of DHS officials were not in fact USSS agents but instead drawn from the department’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). This is especially concerning given that HSI agents were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events, according to the allegations.”
Hawley is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, one of the congressional panels investigating the Trump-assassination attempt. He is asking Mayorkas to provide information about DHS staffing and security gaps at the Trump rally.
On Thursday, Representative Jim Jordan (R., Ohio.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, revealed whistleblower allegations that the Secret Service was understaffed at the Trump rally primarily because of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. that wrapped up days prior.
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle is set to testify on Monday about the law enforcement debacle surrounding the Trump rally, as calls grow for her resignation over the litany of mistakes, like the decision not to place agents on the rooftop where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire.
Cheatle told ABC News earlier this week that no agents were placed on the roof because its slope presented a safety hazard. In addition, she is likely to face questions on the timeline between the time period when witnesses alerted law enforcement to Crooks’s presence, Trump took the stage to deliver his stump speech, and the moment Crooks began to carry out the attack.
At the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Republican senators confronted Cheatle about the failure to protect Trump and pressing her on how law enforcement personnel allowed the assassination attempt to happen.
The FBI is leading the ongoing law enforcement investigation into the Trump-assassination attempt. FBI Director Christopher Wray is set to testify on Wednesday and face similar questions to Cheatle.
“We are committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure it never happens again. That includes complete cooperation with Congress, the FBI, and other relevant investigations,” the Secret Service said in a statement confirming Cheatle’s appearance at an upcoming hearing held by the House Oversight Committee.
Trump was wounded during the rally on Saturday when Crooks fired bullets into the crowd from a nearby rooftop, killing retired fireman Corey Comperatore and wounding two others. Law enforcement gunned down Crooks during the shooting and later discovered explosives in his car parked outside the rally.
Trump’s fist pump as he walked off the stage accompanied by Secret Service agents and bled profusely from his wounded right ear instantly became an iconic moment that is already part of American history.