Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe had a direct role in denying extra security resources, including countersnipers for former President Donald Trump's rallies, sources say in a report that he flatly denied while testifying before Congress Tuesday.
In a RealClear Politics expose Tuesday before the hearing, journalist Susan Crabtree documents that Rowe denied repeated requests from agents who have been assigned to protect Trump over the past two years.
Rowe and former USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned in the wake of the July 13 assassination attempt of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, were both involved in the decisions to deny requests for more agents, magnetometers, and other resources needed to screen people attending Trump's large outdoor rallies, according to Crabtree's reporting.
But when asked during Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday about the report, Rowe told Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., that it was a "false statement" to claim that he denied sniper coverage outside of driving distance from Washington, D.C.
"That is incorrect," Rowe told Johnson, who responded that Rowe would have to refute the claims with "documentation."
When contacted by Newsmax, a Secret Service spokesperson referred questions about the report to Rowe's testimony.
Crabtree, appearing on Newsmax's "Greg Kelly Reports" Tuesday night, insisted that there is documentation about the decisions to deny additional Secret Service resources for the Trump rallies.
"Certainly, maybe he's saying, 'Oh, it was Cheatle's decision,' but are you telling me that you weren't in on those emails, that you had no role in making these decisions?" Crabtree told Kelly. "I don't buy it. I trust my Secret Service sources. I've gone back 12 years on this beat. I've been covering Secret Service scandals since 2012. I trust my sources. They are developed over time, and they have not been wrong before."
Crabtree further reported in her article that her sources had confirmed that Rowe alone had made the decision to deny countersniper teams to any of Trump's events that were not within driving distance from Washington, D.C.
Butler is 264.2 miles, or approximately a distance of five hours and nine minutes, from the capital, according to Google Maps.
Meanwhile, Crabtree Tuesday night discussed an email from the Secret Service's countersniper team, in which an officer spoke out about the lack of protection at the Trump rallies.
"We should all expect another attempt to happen before November," the officer said in the email. "We've exposed our inability to protect our leaders due to our leadership. Secret Service supervisors knew better, and the foot soldiers working made the best of a bad decision."
"I have to deal with the facts," Crabtree told Kelly. "My sources are telling me only that Director Cheatle did not like Donald Trump. They have not said it was a direct political decision to deny him repeated requests for extra security over two years. These requests were coming from the detail of his own team, the innermost ring of his security. They have a lot more explaining to do."
She also insisted that Rowe, as Cheatle's "hand-picked deputy" is not "absolved from all of these decisions" on security for the Trump rallies, "including not even issuing the countersnipers until the day before this event."
"There were 50,000 people expected at this outdoor event," Crabtree told Kelly. "It was a new event space they had never been to before."
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