'They Cannot Afford Another Botched Operation': Whistleblowers Reveal US Secret Service Blunders

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has claimed that most agents who were present during the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in July were not US Secret Service (USSS) agents, but were in fact Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents. The US politician told Fox News that the only training the agents received was a “2-hour online webinar” training. Citing claims made by whistleblowers, he added that the agents who were protecting the former president that day had no prior experience in security detail.

Hawley wrote the whistleblowers’ allegations in a letter to Ronald Rowe, the acting director of the USSS, and attached the letter to an X post.

Tyler Nixon, an attorney, media relations specialist and political analyst, joined Rachel Blevins on The Backstory on Wednesday, and presented a rundown of the agency's long-standing failings.

“Well, there's no question that the Secret Service (USSS) is a very troubled agency and it has been varyingly for many years,” Nixon said. “...the agency has had serious problems with … racial discrimination. There was a lawsuit that became a class action that dragged on for nearly 17 years of Black agents from the ‘80s and ‘90s who were held back, discriminated against, suppressed in terms of promotions. They won and the Secret Service fought that tooth and nail.”

The lawyer disclosed that he represents the first Black Secret Service agent who served on presidential protection, who has threatened to be a whistleblower to the “Warren Commission concerning the laxity, drinking and other things that the agents had perpetrated or done on the President John F. Kennedy detail,” he said, adding that “many argue [the laxity] contributed to their slow reactions [of JFK’s assassination].”

“[USSS] has to, I think, if they were talking about it, it's well over a billion-dollar budget. I think it might have been $1.4 billion, if I'm not mistaken. But whatever it is, it is absolutely enough that they should have the best equipment, the best agents and the best operations. And I think it's just proof that, generally speaking, you can throw as much money as you want at a government agency to address a problem if there's institutional incompetence and institutional issues and just the fact that the government operates the way it does without accountability,” Nixon explained.

“And one of the other things was, which really stands out in the Trump affair was that they were assigning [...] based on apparently the status, let's just say, of the protectee, meaning Trump's not the president. He's a candidate, a former president. Versus what [American conservative commentator Dan Bongino] noted should be the criteria for assigning the resources, which is the threat profile,” he added.

“In Butler, there was what I would view as it wasn't simply incompetence. There was actually active security stripping, which is very, very troubling because that's not just a matter of people not doing their jobs properly. It's a matter of an intent to expose him to potential assassination or assassination, and that is, that's corruption that is so - I mean, it would be criminal, obviously, that level of corruption,” he continued. “So, major reforms need to happen with that agency, if not a total reckoning.”

Last month, Sputnik reported that US Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced legislation to expand the range of USSS’ security perimeters following the assassination attempt against Trump. The bill, dubbed the AR-15 Perimeter Security Enhancement Act, would ensure that perimeters around the person that USSS is tasked with protecting would be extensive enough to cover the area that a fired gun could cover, as well as to secure all elevated positions.

“...we're not seeing accountability, we're seeing nothing. They have been stonewalling and slow walking this investigation. I mean, we are now coming up on two months out from this, and everybody could see what happened. There, you know, this doesn't require a six-month investigation with, I mean, all this drawn out, you know, where basically they're going back,” Nixon said.

“...the local law enforcement in Butler were taking their jobs very seriously and were pushing to the USSS, wondering what the heck they're doing. The USSS didn't even show up to the morning briefing where even if they had left, had all these gaps in security that they had let arise, they would have been able to maybe sort of sew it all together in that last briefing, but they didn't show up for that. And no, there is no accountability at this point.”

“And I don't think we will - [acting USSS Director Ronald] Rowe, who is the replacement, excuse me, for [Kimberly] Cheatle who resigned, which, you know, that was a foregone conclusion. I mean, she was sort of the sacrificial lamb, but he was more intimately involved in these, in these decisions to deny Trump the additional security that his, that the actual ground agents were requesting in addition to Trump's people. And, he's part of the problem,” the attorney explained.

It was reported in August that USSS had taken initial disciplinary action against “multiple agents” following the assassination attempt against Trump. According to a report from The Hill, the special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office - which was responsible for planning the security for Trump’s appearance in Butler - was on “administrative duty.” At least five agents had been placed on that status as well, the report added.

“It's just, it doesn't matter because unfortunately what we have is we've instituted incompetence in addition to the possibility of corruption that we've seen," he added.

Rowe, who took over Cheatle’s role following her resignation, said he would not fire any agents until internal investigations were completed. A bipartisan task force was created by the House of Representatives to investigate the security failures that occurred during the shooting.

One person was killed and two others were injured before the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by a Secret Service sniper. Hawley has asked Rowe, the acting director, to answer questions based on information he received from the whistleblowers, including: details on the training that Trump’s protective detail received, and whether or not that training has been revamped since the shooting, as well as how many HSI agents were present at the time.

“I think they do legitimately have and should have serious concerns over Biden's safety. First of all, from the perspective of who wouldn't want to make Kamala Harris president before the election, like, the impact that would have. I mean, I hate to say it, there's a motive with a lot of people to see that happen, to think they will cinch the election somehow, or it will swing things, number one,” Nixon explained.

“The Secret Service absolutely, I think, also cannot afford, they know that one more thing like this, one more botched protective detail operation and they are done. I mean, there's no, there will be no, I mean, that will be the end of that agency. And I think it's like, you know, this is our survival on the line.”