Secret Service Whistleblower Claims Trump Forced To Cancel Wisconsin Rally Because Agency Could Not Secure the Event

Trump has launched a bus tour across the state featuring members of Congress, state party leaders and local activists.

AP/Evan Vucci
President Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service after the first attempted assassination. AP/Evan Vucci

Senator Hawley is making new accusations against the Secret Service following the recent attempt on President Trump’s life, saying that a whistleblower has informed him that the protective agency denied resources Trump’s campaign requested ahead of a rally in Wisconsin.

The Secret Service has yet to respond to the allegation. 

“I write concerning new whistleblower allegations that the U.S. Secret Service effectively forced the Trump campaign to cancel an upcoming event in Wisconsin. This new information calls into question your recent public statements regarding the level of security your agency is providing to the former president. It also suggests that the Secret Service’s inability to fully protect former President Trump may be affecting the conduct of the presidential campaign,” Mr. Hawley wrote in a letter to the agency’s acting director, Ronald Rowe. 

Following the most recent attempt on Trump’s life, Mr. Rowe said at a press conference that the former president was receiving “the highest level of Secret Service protection on par with what President Biden and Vice President Harris are receiving. That may not be true, Mr. Hawley argues, because the Trump campaign was forced to abandon their Wisconsin event while Ms. Harris was able to hold an event with thousands of people at a Madison, Wisconsin stadium just on Saturday. 

An advisor to Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the allegedly canceled Wisconsin rally. The former president’s campaign has launched a bus tour across the state featuring members of Congress, state party leaders, local activists, and the Republican National Committee co-chairwoman, Lara Trump. 

Mr. Hawley says the presidential campaign could be impacted by a major party nominee’s inability to campaign for himself in-person, however. 

“According to a whistleblower with direct knowledge of the exchange, Secret Service recently told the Trump campaign that it did not have sufficient assets to secure a potential campsion rally in Wisconsin for the former president,” Mr. Hawley writes. “Other whistleblowers with direct knowledge of secret service planning protocols allege that failure to provide protection for a major public event is highly unusual and that a sitting president would never be denied resources in this way.”

The Secret Service’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the whistleblower’s allegations. 

Mr. Hawley’s letter comes on the same day that the Trump campaign announced that the Office of Director of National Intelligence briefed Trump personally on a plot by Iran to have him assassinated in order to “sow chaos” here in America. 

“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, said in a statement. 

Mr. Hawley has been dogged in his own investigation of the Secret Service, including releasing a 22-page whistleblower report the day after the second attempted assassination of Trump at his golf course in south Florida. That report dealt with alleged security failures at the first assassination attempt against Trump, which happened at Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. 

Mr. Hawley provided that whistleblower report to the special House committee on the attempted assassinations, which is set to host a public hearing on Thursday. Witnesses at that hearing include the head of the Butler police department’s emergency services division, two police officers, Allegheny County’s coroner, and a retired Secret Service agent. 


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