Senator Hawley confronted DHS Secretary Mayorkas over the DHS’s “stunning failure” to protect former president Donald Trump
Trump’s security detail at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally where he escaped death was unusually lax and contained many officials who were not Secret Service agents, according to whistleblower testimony seen by Senator Josh Hawley.
Senator Hawley raised concerns about the arrangements in a letter sent on Friday to Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
?? Whistleblowers tell me that MOST of Trump’s security detail working the event last Saturday were not even Secret Service. DHS assigned unprepared and inexperienced personnel ? pic.twitter.com/eo4jNmJWFT
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 19, 2024
“Whistleblowers who have direct knowledge of the event have approached my office,” wrote Senator Hawley.
“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 no stationed at regular intervals around the event’s security perimeter.”
Hawley went on to allege that many of the DHS personnel were unsuitable for the job.
“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 (HIS). This is especially concerning given that HIS agents were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events, according to the allegations.”
Hawley vowed, in his role as a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, to “continue to investigate your department’s role in the staggering security failures on July 13.”
He noted that the DHS “has not been appropriately forthcoming with Members of Congress” and said that this was “completely unacceptable and contrary to the public’s interest in transparency.”
The senator then asked Mayorkas to respond to a series of questions about former president Trump’s security detail, including how the DHS decided to staff the event, the percentage of staff that were from the HIS rather than the Secret Service and whether discrepancies and security failures were noted by staff before and during the event.
It was also revealed on Friday that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to fly a drone over the Butler fairground multiple times in the hours before Trump spoke, as Crooks reconnoitered the site and planned his attack.
The official line remains that Crooks was a troubled loner who planned and carried out the assassination attempt on 13 July without any aid from others.
Officials have said that Crooks planned the assassination attempt meticulously. He began his research not long after the event at Butler was announced on 3 July. He registered for the event on 7 July and a few days later visited the fairground to begin his preparation.
He also created homemade bombs, including devices that were found in his car at the Butler showground. It’s not currently known how Crooks was able to manufacture these devices.
“It’s unclear how Crooks assembled the explosive devices found in his car,” CNN reported.
“Investigators parsing through his online search history haven’t found any indication of him researching how to make home-made explosives, law enforcement officials said.”
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