Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said new whistleblower allegations reveal that many of the agents assigned to protect former President Donald Trump during the July assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, were Homeland Security agents who had limited training.
Hawley on Tuesday sent a letter to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe outlining the claims about Trump's protective detail.
"Whistleblower allegations to my office report that the only training received by many HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] agents reassigned to work protective details is a single two-hour webinar on Microsoft Teams featuring pre-recorded videos," Hawley wrote. "The whistleblower alleged that these videos were not substantive and their playback was frequently riddled with technical mishaps, leaving the HSI agents ill-prepared for the protective mission to which they were newly assigned.
"[A]ll of these allegations together suggest that a significant number of personnel tasked with providing security for former President Trump at the July 13 rally were egregiously under-prepared by the Secret Service to carry out this mission."
In addition, Hawley said, the latest whistleblower allegations contend that the Homeland Security agents were "pulled off child exploitation cases" to serve on Trump's protective detail, which they were unprepared for because it was not something they typically did.
As a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees, Hawley has continued to investigate the attempt on Trump's life. According to his office, Hawley has visited the Butler site and publicized multiple whistleblower allegations, including that agents abandoned posts on the rooftop where the shooter was located.
Hawley released a letter last month on social media site X that he sent to Rowe detailing whistleblower allegations that claim the Secret Service told the agents in charge of the Butler trip not to request more resources for the Trump rally.
"One whistleblower with knowledge of Secret Service planning for former President Trump's trip to Butler, Pennsylvania, alleges that officials at Secret Service headquarters encouraged agents in charge of the trip not to request any additional security assets in its formal manpower request — effectively denying these assets through informal means," Hawley wrote.
Rowe, he said, has "repeatedly suggested that no security assets had been denied for the Butler event," referring to the acting director's testimony before the Senate on July 30.
"You must explain this apparent contradiction immediately," Hawley wrote at the time.