Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was directly involved in denying additional security resources and personnel, including counter-snipers, for former President Trump’s rallies and events, a report said on Tuesday. This decision was made despite repeated requests from the agents assigned to Trump’s detail over the two years leading up to his attempted assassination on July 13, according to several sources familiar with the matter, RealClearPolitics reported.
Rowe succeeded former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned last week amid bipartisan criticism following her widely criticized testimony before the House Oversight Committee. Both Rowe and Cheatle were involved in decisions to deny requests for additional magnetometers, extra agents, and other resources to screen rallygoers at large, outdoor Trump campaign events. According to sources, it was Rowe’s sole decision to deny counter-sniper teams to any Trump event located outside driving distance from D.C., the outlet reported.
Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate are scheduled to testify Tuesday before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees. Senators from both parties have pledged to demand answers regarding the assassination attempt on Trump, which resulted in the death of rally-goer Corey Comperatore and injuries to two others. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, chair of the Homeland Security panel, stated that he intends to scrutinize Rowe and Abbate over the “litany of gaps and failures” in the security response.
“The hearing comes one day after the FBI released new details about its investigation into the shooting, revealing that the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, had looked online for information about mass shootings, power plants, improvised explosive devices and the May assassination attempt of the Slovakian prime minister,” The Associated Press reported. “The FBI also said that Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has agreed to be interviewed by agents as a crime victim. The bureau said last week that the former president had been struck in the ear by a bullet or fragment of one. Trump said Monday evening that he expected that interview to take place Thursday.”
Most of Tuesday’s questions are expected to be directed at Rowe, as lawmakers seek answers on how Crooks managed to get so close to Trump. Investigators believe Crooks fired eight shots at Trump from an AR-style rifle after scaling the roof of a building approximately 135 meters (147 yards) away from where Trump was speaking in Butler. One rallygoer was killed, and two others were injured. Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
At her hearing last week, Cheatle said the Secret Service had “failed” in its mission to protect Trump. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades and vowed to “move heaven and earth” to get to the bottom of what went wrong and make sure there’s no repeat of it, the AP noted. Cheatle admitted that the Secret Service had been alerted about a suspicious individual two to five times before the rally shooting. She also revealed that the roof from which Crooks fired had been flagged as a potential vulnerability days before the event.
Cheatle stated that she apologized to Trump in a phone call after the event. In a Monday night interview on Fox News Channel, Trump defended the Secret Service agents who protected him during the shooting but criticized the lack of a presence on the roof with Crooks and the insufficient communication with local police.
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