(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Secret Service has placed several members of the Pittsburgh Field Office, which oversaw security preparations at the July 13 deadly Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on administrative leave, according to reporter Susan Crabtree.
Citing three unnamed sources in the “Secret Service community,” Crabtree reported Thursday that several non-Pittsburgh agents assigned to Trump’s permanent protective detail are still on the job, even though they, too, were involved in security planning at Butler.
“The differing treatment of the two teams is spurring internal dissension and speculation that the Pittsburgh office could bear the brunt of the serious security failures that day, even though there’s plenty of blame to go around,” Crabtree reported.
“Because members of the Pittsburgh Field Office shared the responsibility with the individuals from the Trump detail, sources are questioning why no one from the Trump detail has been put on administrative leave while several of their Pittsburgh counterparts have been,” she said.
EXCLUSIVE and BREAKING: Secret Service Agents Placed on Leave After Trump Assassination Attempt — Is Accountability Coming?
Also, sources question if arrests in 2022 of Pakistanis who DUPED Secret Service agents into believing they were DHS Agents and paying for their… pic.twitter.com/QnVKS9GGBM
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) August 22, 2024
“Even the innermost ring of security – those agents on the Trump detail who quickly used their bodies as human shields to protect Trump – are still on the job despite the obvious trauma of going through such a stressful event.”
Among the Secret Service agents still on duty are the unnamed female site agent for Butler, who is on Trump’s security detail.
In a letter earlier this month to Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, Hawley called for the lead site agent to be suspended immediately. Hawley said whistleblowers have given him disturbing information about the Secret Service lead site agent’s track record.
“This lead site agent was well-known in campaign circles as lacking competence and experience in the role … The whistleblower further alleges that this individual was, as part of securing the site, specifically responsible for line-of-sight concerns,” Hawley said.
Hawley accused Rowe of jeopardizing the security of protectees by allowing the Secret Service site agent to continue working.
The senator’s letter came about a week after Rowe dodged his questions at a congressional hearing. There, Hawley specifically asked Rowe to name the agents who failed to confirm that the building from which the failed assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired shots at Trump was secured.
In response, Rowe claimed he did not want to single out any specific individual. “Sir, this could have been our Texas School Book Depository. I’ve lost sleep over that for the last 17 days, just like you have,” Rowe said, referencing the building from which Lee Harvey Oswald fatally shot President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
