(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Ka., wrote to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari on Monday, asking him to widen his investigation into the Secret Service’s failures at the July 13 Trump assassination attempt.
As it stands right now, IG Cuffari has three probes ongoing into the Trump shooting: one evaluating the Secret Service’s performance on July 13, one determining the extent to which the agency’s snipers are prepared to protect their assets, and one determining the extent to which the Secret Service’s planning ensures the safety of its protectees.
But Marshall wants Cuffari to investigate more than that. He wants the Homeland Security inspector general to look into the Secret Service’s decision to deny additional resources to Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and “potentially others.”
“The USSS initially claimed that it was attentive to the Trump campaign security concerns and had ‘added protective resources & technology & capabilities to President Trump’s protective unit. However, this claim was later refuted, as the USS repeatedly denied additional protective resources to the Trump campaign,” Marshall noted in his letter.
“The USS procided a variety of justifications for these denials, including staffing shortages, hiring limits and assessing gatherings as ‘not campaign events.’”
Marshall also wants Cuffari to identify the specific individuals responsible for making decisions in Trump’s security planning. This request comes after the senator repeatedly asked Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe about the matter at a June 30 congressional hearing, only to have Rowe obfuscate—telling the senator that allocating Secret Service resources is a collective process.
“Because of Acting Director Rowe’s imprecise response, I still have no clarity regarding internal USSS decision-making processes and who ultimately approves or denies requests for protective resources,” Marshall told Cuffari.
Finally, Marshall asked Cuffari to document the Secret Service’s workforce, which has reportedly suffered from severe attrition. According to some reports, nearly half of the agency’s workforce departed in 2022 alone.
Rowe was also supposed to get answers to Marshall about the attrition following the June 30 congressional hearing, but the senator said he hasn’t received any.
Along with asking Cuffari to widen his investigation, Marshall asked for a slew of documents, including all records related to the decision to deny Trump and RFK Jr. security resources.
Marshall asked to receive those records by Sept. 27.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
