“The Biden Secret Service is in cover-up mode on its inexcusable and epic failure to protect former President Trump and other innocents,” says Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.
The U.S. Secret Service outright denied multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documents about the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Judicial Watch on July 16 filed three FOIA requests seeking emails, videos, and advance survey security assessments, among other documents related to the attempted assassination of Trump.
“The Secret Service time and time again can’t be trusted,” Fitton said, noting the agency’s bizarre slew of excuses for why Thomas Crooks was able to position himself on a nearby roof and take several shots at Trump with a rifle before a sniper took him out in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The Biden Secret Service (or the FBI or Congress, etc) can’t be trusted. @JudicialWatch doing its own investigation…. pic.twitter.com/D5zyOpSuEp
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) July 23, 2024
But the Secret Service has refused to produce any documents requested, claiming the disclosure could “interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
At this time, pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(B)(7)(A), any potentially responsive records, if they exist, are exempt as disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings. The citation of the above exemption is not to be construed as the only exemption which may be available under the FOIA.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in response accused the Secret Service of engaging in a “cover up” and said his organization is preparing further litigation to obtain those documents.
“The Biden Secret Service is in cover-up mode on its inexcusable and epic failure to protect former President Trump and other innocents,” Fitton said.
“For Secret Service leaders to promise transparency to Congress while hiding every possible FOIA record from the American people is yet another indictment of this corrupt and failing agency.”
The Secret Service likewise denied FOIA requests filed by America First Legal on July 19, claiming there is no “particular urgency to inform the public about the government activity involved in the request.”
?BREAKING — Biden’s Secret Service is delaying the processing of a FOIA we filed following the assassination attempt of President Trump because they claim there is not:
1. Any threat to the life or safety of anyone;
2. Any urgency to inform the public about gov’t activity. pic.twitter.com/OtVebpzqSJ— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) July 19, 2024
Following the release of Secret Service bodycam footage obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in response to the agency’s lack of transparency, O’Keefe Media Group last week also filed FOIA requests for all of the bodycam footage from the July 13 incident.
OMG Submits FOIA Request for Trump Assassination Attempt Footage; Discusses Newly Released Video and Reveals Secret Service Tips
As OMG appeals for more information through FOIA requests, @JamesOKeefeIII reveals exclusive body cam footage from the Trump assassination attempt,… pic.twitter.com/l81SLnY5JQ
— O’Keefe Media Group (@OKeefeMedia) July 24, 2024
Disgraced Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned from her post last week amid intense criticism after the agency failed to protect Trump from the shooting.
Acting Director Ronald Rowe also revealed during a Senate hearing on Tuesday that not a single Secret Service agent or official has been fired as a result of the July 13 shooting against Trump.
And a USSS counter-sniper recently claimed in an alarming internal email that another attempted hit on Trump was imminent given the agency’s systemic failure of leadership.
Read the Secret Service’s denial:
