The Secret Service blocked the use of drone technology to survey the scene of the Butler rally where an assassin attempted to shoot former President Donald Trump, according to a whistleblower.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., revealed that a whistleblower had told his office the night before the rally that the Secret Service “repeatedly rejected offers from a local law enforcement partner to use drone technology to protect the rally.”
The whistleblower said that after the shooting, the Secret Service “changed course and asked the local partner to deploy drone technology to monitor the scene after the incident.”
The drones on offer “had the ability to not only identify active shooters but neutralize them,” Hawley said.
Hawley demanded all records and communications related to the drone deal from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is hurriedly removed from the stage during a rally on July 13, 2024.
Snipers stand on a rooftop during a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is covered by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally
The new claim adds another layer to the investigation into the biggest Secret Service security failure since Ronald Reagan was assassinated in 1981.
After six grueling hours of testimony on Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle submitted her resignation on Tuesday.
He had spent much of the day evading and giving contradictory answers to questions such as why the roof where gunman Thomas Crooks carried out his attack was not included within the security perimeter despite being within rifle range of the stage and why Trump was allowed on stage even though Crooks was identified as a suspicious person an hour before he fired any shots.
Asked to explain why there was no agent on the roof, the director explained that it was because the agency generally “prefers sterile roofs.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers Wednesday that the 20-year-old gunman flew a drone 200 yards from the scene just two hours before he opened fire in Butler, Pennsylvania, and had three explosives in his car.
On July 13, Trump was shot in the ear by gunmen just 400 feet from the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, from the roof of a nearby building, just outside the event’s security perimeter.
Wray said Crooks and his family owned 14 guns in total and that Crooks had visited a shooting range the day before the rally. Crooks used an AR-type weapon that his father had legally purchased and sold to him in October 2023.
Wray said eight bullet casings had been recovered from the ceiling where Crooks shot the former president.
After six grueling hours of testimony on Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle submitted her resignation on Tuesday.
And he did not rule out that Crooks had accomplices in the crime, saying it was still being investigated by police.
When Wray faced questions about why the president was allowed on stage even though the “threat” was identified 20 minutes before the shots were fired, Wray said, “We don’t know the answer to that.”
He said no one on the police force saw Crooks lying in a shooting position with a gun in his hand until “moments before” he fired, but they had seen him on the roof “minutes before.”
The FBI and Secret Service revealed to lawmakers last week that they identified Crooks as a person of interest 62 minutes before he fired his gun.
He had been seen carrying a rangefinder, which Cheatle said was “not a prohibited item” at Trump’s campaign events. This was not enough to identify him as a threat.
Twenty minutes before Crooks shot, he was seen on the roof.
One bullet grazed Trump’s ear. One member of the public, Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed and two others, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 57, were seriously injured but are in stable condition.