Secret Service officials refused to provide extra security for Donald Trump in the two years leading up to last weekend’s assassination, a report says.
The damning report found that the ex-president’s request for more agents and magnetometers at events he attended was denied.
Four insiders told The Washington Post that every request was denied by senior officials. The Secret Service’s higher echelons claimed the agency did not have the resources Trump requested.
Trump has also been shown to have received less protection than other former presidents and major-party presidential candidates after losing the 2020 election and his bid for a second term.
The revelations came after the attempted assassination of Trump, 78, last Saturday at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Secret Service officials refused to provide extra security for Donald Trump in the two years leading up to last weekend’s assassination
Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to bypass security at the rally and throw fire at the presidential candidate.
Crooks grazed Trump’s ear with a bullet, causing a minor gunshot wound that could have been fatal had the former president not moved his head at the last moment.
The Secret Service’s botched job is being described as “a massive security failure” and many are calling for the resignation of the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle.
The criminals’ attempt to kill Trump was made possible by multiple instances of negligence by security officials.
Somehow, Crooks managed to fly a drone over the site of the rally on the same day as the event, in what investigators believe was an attempt to assess the situation and prepare for his assassination attempt.
A report revealed that the ex-president’s request for more agents and magnetometers at events he attended was denied.
Moreover, he was spotted by police at the scene of Trump’s protest, as they had a feeling something was wrong, but they managed to lose sight of him before the carnage began, sources said.
Witnesses later testified that they had alerted police to a man with an AR-style rifle who had climbed onto a building, but Crooks was still able to fire from the roof he had climbed onto.
It could be the biggest security lapse since President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in a Washington hotel in 1981.
Now they face a flood of questions about how the first assassination attempt in 43 years could have happened.
Politicians, law enforcement officials and critics are demanding answers as to how Crooks was able to get so close to a gathering that was so heavily secured.
The Secret Service’s botched job is being described as a ‘massive security failure’ and many are calling for the resignation of the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle (pictured)
Late Saturday night, FBI agent Kevin Rojek released a statement saying it was “surprising” that Crooks managed to fire so many shots.
There have been suggestions that routine checks have eliminated all potential threats, raising questions about the quality of the Secret Service under the current administration.
Furious US senators confronted Cheatle, who hid behind her own security guards.
She was protected by her agents after senators chased her through the halls of the RNC, demanding she explain how a gunman was able to target Trump.