Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who is one of the few members of Congress seriously looking into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., in July, dropped another bombshell during an appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Thursday. Hawley told Watters that a whistleblower has said the lead advance agent ahead of the event where Donald Trump was nicked in the right ear “was known not to be a top-quality agent” and had failed Secret Service training exams.
“What I’m learning now is that the lead advance agent, that day in Pennsylvania, this is the agent that was in charge of Trump’s entire trip in Pennsylvania, that this agent actually failed one or more of her training exams when she first joined the Secret Service,” Hawley said. “The pattern that is emerging here from whistleblowers who come forward to me now over and over again is that the Trump rally was undermanned, it was understaffed. They did not have people who had experience on it. And now this advance agent, I’m told, may have failed one or more training exams and was known not to be a top-quality agent. This is absurd. The fact that the director will not level with the American people about what’s going on here is just totally unacceptable and unbelievable.”
Watters responded: “Director Cheatle, we know, had a priority to make 30% of the Secret Service women. So this woman fails maybe once, maybe twice, maybe more, and it doesn’t matter. Cheatle still makes her in charge of the protective site detail for Butler, knowing that there was an Iranian threat.”
Hawley noted: “This is what’s so hard to understand. If this individual had failed one or more of her training exams, if she was known not to be really one of the Secret Service’s top agents, she’s in the Pittsburgh office. Why was she put in charge of the entire trip? The whole thing, she was in charge of the whole works, from the time the president landed to the time he went to Butler, it’s just totally inexplicable.”
He continued: “One other thing — I’m told by people who are close to and have knowledge of the Secret Service’s own internal investigation that the Department of Homeland Security is leaning on the Secret Service not to comply with document requests to Congress. This is really getting to be outrageous. The American people need the truth here.”
WATCH:
The Secret Service’s failures at the July Trump rally were highlighted in previously redacted sections of the Jan. 6 after-action report, which were shared with agency officials weeks before the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt. These passages, now available through a Homeland Security inspector general report obtained by Just the News, reveal serious lapses that jeopardized the safety of then-Vice President Mike Pence and Vice-President-elect-Kamala Harris.
The report details how Pence’s escape vehicle left its assigned post without proper authorization, leaving him stranded amid escalating violence at the Capitol. It also recounts how Secret Service agents experienced communication breakdowns due to signal loss on radios and cell phones. Additionally, it notes the failure to deploy a required explosives detection team when Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris was mistakenly routed past a live pipe bomb just before the Capitol riot began, the outlet reported.
The April 2024 report also revealed that the Secret Service had received intelligence from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service before January 6, 2021, indicating a “high potential for civil unrest” involving individuals who were expected to be “heavily armed.” Despite these warnings, the Secret Service maintained its standard security plan, which involved a five-person detail inside the Capitol for routine congressional visits. This approach left agents and officers inadequately staffed as violence erupted around them, the outlet continued.
The full report, including detailed passages on sensitive Jan. 6 security failures, was provided to Secret Service management and Homeland Security officials in April. This gave them over two months to address significant issues identified by the chief watchdog for the Homeland Security Department. In late June, Secret Service executives responded to the report, with some rejecting the recommendations for enhanced security measures. Recently, the redacted passages were finally shared with House and Senate oversight committees, Just the News added.
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