According to a report by Washington Post the Secret Service officials repeatedly denied requests for additional resources made by former President Donald Trump’s detail prior to the July 13 assassination attempt.
Trump was slightly wounded in the right ear on July 13 when a gunman fired multiple shots during the attempted assassination at the Butler County, Pennsylvania rally, which also resulted in the death of former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore and the wounding of two other attendees. For at least two years prior to the deadly incident, Trump’s detail had been denied resources, including counter-sniper teams for a 2023 appearance in Pickens, South Carolina, where several buildings surrounded Trump’s stage.
“It’s just true—we don’t have the resources to secure him [Trump] like we did when he was president,” one official told the Washington Post. The report indicated that events involving President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were competing for resources last week. Agents were also engaged in advance work for the Republican National Convention.
One former Secret Service agent attributed the resource shortage to top leaders.
“I hate to dumb it down this much, but it is a simple case of supply and demand. The requests get turned down routinely,” retired Secret Service agent Bill Gage told the Post. “A director has to finally come forward to say we are way understaffed and we cannot possibly continue with this zero-fail mission without a significantly bigger budget.”
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday, stating that whistleblowers have informed his committee that Trump’s detail was short-handed due to the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., and Jill Biden’s campaign event in Pittsburgh. Wray is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Since the July 13 assassination attempt, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has received Secret Service protection after it was previously denied.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has faced multiple calls for her resignation and is expected to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing investigating security lapses at the July 13 rally on Monday.
Trump had previously survived an assassination attempt during his 2016 campaign for the White House. At a June 2016 campaign event in Las Vegas, a 20-year-old man tried to take a police officer’s gun to shoot the then-presumptive GOP nominee.