Hawley releases Secret Service whistleblower report with more missteps at Butler rally

Just one day after a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a whistleblower report on the security failures at rump’s Butler, Pa., rally. 

Several whistleblowers approached Hawley’s office after he began investigating the security failures that resulted in would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks accessing the roof a building in close proximity to the rally stage and firing on the former president and rally attendees.

Among other previously reported claims, whistleblowers say the Secret Service agent in charge of security at Trump's rally “was known to lack competence and experience in the role.” 

“One whistleblower alleged that the Secret Service’s lead site agent—the agent with specific responsibility for the security of the rally site—was known to lack competence and experience in the role,” the report reads. “The whistleblower claimed that this agent was responsible for mitigating line-of-sight concerns at the Butler site.”

Another whistleblower told Hawley’s office that key security decisions made by the lead agent “likely compromised the overall security of the event.” The whistleblower cited the decision to allow campaign materials like flags to be placed around the catwalk used by Trump despite the fact that they were prohibited for affects an agent’s line-of-sight.

Hawley’s report further concluded that the special teams of agents that partner with local law enforcement officers to investigate suspicious person reports, Secret Service intelligence teams, were absent from Trump’s Butler rally. 

Whistleblowers said that the hospital where Trump was taken after one of Crooks’ bullets struck him in the ear was “poorly secured” and “the hospital site agent could not answer basic questions about site security.”

You can read the report below: