Local law enforcement proposed to help with drone technology at the Butler, Pa. rally where former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated earlier this month but was turned down by the Secret Service, a whistleblower claimed, according to Sen. Josh Hawley.
Hawley (R-Mo.), 44, penned a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday demanding answers about a whistleblower’s allegations that the Secret Service “repeatedly” rejected the offer.
“The night before the rally, US Secret Service repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally,” Hawley wrote to Mayorkas citing the whistleblower.
“The whistleblower further alleges that after the shooting took place, USSS changed course and asked the local partner to deploy the drone technology to surveil the site in the aftermath of the attack,” he added.
Hawley previously went public with whistleblower allegations that an officer who was designated to observe the roof of the shed where would-be assassin Thomas Crooks, 20, fired shots from, but left the spot because it was “too hot.”
The Missouri Republican had sent a letter to Mayorkas on Monday demanding answers about those accusations, as well.
Ultimately, Crooks fired multiple shots at the rally, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, severely injuring two others — David Dutch, 57, as well as James Copenhaver, 74.— and nicking Trump’s ear.
On Wednesday, FBI director Christopher Wray raised questions about whether a bullet hit Trump’s ear or if the wound was caused by shrapnel. Trump has publicly claimed the bullet grazed him. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images |
Sen. Josh Hawley says whistleblower revealed offers had been denied more than once.
Local law enforcement repeatedly offered to provide drone coverage in the sky above former President Trump’s July 13 campaign rally — where he survived a failed assassination attempt — but was rebuffed by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), according to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., citing a new whistleblower.
"According to one whistleblower, the night before the rally, U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally," Hawley, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
"This means that the technology was both available to USSS and able to be deployed to secure the site. Secret Service said no."
FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose agency has taken a lead role in the investigation, confirmed during a congressional hearing this week that the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, flew a drone of his own overhead before Trump took the stage.
"This raises an obvious question: why was the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) not using its own drones?" Hawley wrote.
The USSS did not ask for local partners to fly their drones until after the shooting was over and a counter-sniper took down the gunman, according to the whistleblower.
"The whistleblower further alleges that after the shooting took place, USSS changed course and asked the local partner to deploy the drone technology to surveil the site in the aftermath of the attack," Hawley wrote.
The senator asked Mayorkas to hand over all DHS communications regarding drone coverage for the rally as part of a congressional investigation into the security failure that allowed an armed man within 150 yards of the former president. --->READ MORE HERE
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