Why the Secret Service didn’t do a full sweep of the golf course before the Trump assassination attempt
- Acting Secret Service chief said golf outing was ‘off the record’
- The charging document states that the suspect stayed in the area for nearly 12 hours
The acting director of the Secret Service said Tuesday that Donald Trump’s ill-fated golf outing on Sunday was an “off the record” event that was not on his official schedule and therefore did not involve large-scale security screenings.
Ronald Rowe Jr., acting head of the Secret Service, made the comments at a news conference for reporters in Florida as the investigation expanded and questions remained about how a potential assassin could hang around the president’s golf course for hours while wielding an assault rifle.
Rowe was asked if agents had searched the area around Trump International Golf Course on Sunday.
“It wasn’t on his schedule. So it wasn’t published because he wasn’t supposed to be there,” Rowe said.
A new charging document alleges that suspect Ryan Routh spent nearly 12 hours in the area in what the FBI is calling an attempted murder. He was seen fleeing the scene at 1:31 p.m.
Rowe defended the level of protection at Trump International Golf Course, and said it was essentially the same as in 2017, when he was in power.
Ronald Rowe Jr., the acting director of the Secret Service, speaks at a law enforcement press conference. He was asked why the entire Trump golf course wasn’t cleared while an alleged attempted assassination was there for 12 hours. Trump’s golf course was an “off the record” move, he said.
“Yesterday there was an off-the-record movement. The president wasn’t even going to go. It wasn’t on his official agenda,” Rowe said. “So we put together a security plan, and the security plan worked.”
The officer who authorities say shot Ryan Wesley Routh was walking across the course in front of Trump, who was going from hole five to hole six when the incident occurred.
The Secret Service is under increasing pressure despite a change in leadership after two attempts on the former president and GOP candidate in a matter of weeks.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw raised eyebrows when he suggested Sunday that Trump would receive less protection.
“At this level that he’s at right now, he’s not the sitting president. If he was, we would have this entire golf course surrounded. But because he’s not, the security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service thinks are possible,” Bradshaw said. “I would imagine the next time he comes to a golf course, there’s probably going to be a little bit more people around the perimeter,” he added.
A criminal complaint alleges he was near the tree line of Trump’s golf course for nearly 12 hours
The suspect was able to get a gun in the area without any official warning that Trump would be there
A former top FBI official questions how Ryan Wesley Routh knew to set up shop near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course, and whether he had inside information
When a reporter asked Monday if there had been a “miscommunication” given that President Joe Biden had ordered the “highest level of protection” for Trump, Bradshaw asked Rowe if he would answer the question, and deferred.
“You look at that footprint now and you look at it today, there’s not much difference,” said Rowe, who said the uniformed presence was about the same as when Trump was in office.
Rowe said he spoke with former President Trump and said he was “conscious that he has the highest level of protection” the Secret Service provides. “If we need additional protection, we will do that,” he added.
The comments came on a day when former FBI assistant director Chris Swecker told DailyMail.com that Routh may have had access to “inside information” since he was framed on a day when golf was not on Trump’s public schedule.
Swecker said, “I can guarantee you the FBI is going to shut that sheriff down right now and they’re not going to say much about the details because they’re in protection mode, particularly prosecution mode,” he said.
Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI Miami Field Office, said investigators were still in the early stages of the investigation. “We have no information that he was working with anyone else at this time,” he said.