Secret Service admits some requests from Trump detail were denied

The U.S. Secret Service has admitted in a reversal that it has, in fact, denied several requests from the detail in charge of protecting former President Donald Trump over the last couple years.

The admission from U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi comes about a week before a lone gunman was able to graze Trump, kill a bystander, and injure two others at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The agency is facing significant scrutiny and several investigations following the assassination attempt that was not thwarted by law enforcement, even though the would-be shooter was identified as a possible threat shortly before opening fire.

“In some instances where specific Secret Service specialized units or resources were not provided, the agency made modifications to ensure the security of the protectee,” Guglielmi told the Washington Examiner on Saturday. “This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce public exposure of a protectee.” 

The admission that some requests to increase the former president‘s security were denied comes after officials previously rebuked claims the agency had done so.

One day after the shooting, Guglielmi said, “The assertion that a member of the former president’s security team requested additional security resources that the U.S. Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false.”

Similarly, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service, said last Monday that the accusation that he had issued the denials was “a baseless and irresponsible statement and it is one that is unequivocally false.”

Unlike recent former presidents, Trump went from president to a civilian, and back to a presidential candidate as the first modern-day former president to run for president again not as the incumbent.

“The Secret Service has a vast, dynamic, and intricate mission,” he added. “Every day we work in a dynamic threat environment to ensure our protectees are safe and secure across multiple events, travel, and other challenging environments. We execute a comprehensive and layered strategy to balance personnel, technology, and specialized operational needs.”  

The Secret Service is facing overwhelming criticism following last weekend’s assassination attempt against the former president, where a 20-year-old with no military experience was able to scale a building and fire shots from the rooftop less than 150 yards away from the stage the former president was speaking on.

The bullet struck the top of Trump’s right ear, which produced a “2 centimeter wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear,” Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), the former White House physician under the former president, said in a letter on Saturday.

It was the first time a current or former president had been shot in more than four decades since John Hinckley, Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan in March 1981.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is set to appear in front of the House Oversight Committee on Monday, where she will face a grilling from lawmakers, many of whom have demanded her resignation or for President Joe Biden to fire her. Several GOP lawmakers confronted her last week during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about the assassination attempt.

The news that Service Service had, in fact, denied some requests from Trump’s detail was first reported by the Washington Post.

U.S. officials said last week the Secret Service had enhanced security for the former president before the Butler rally because it had received information from U.S. intelligence agencies about an Iranian assassination plot against the former president to enact revenge against the former U.S. officials involved in the January 2020 airstrike in Iraq that killed Gen. Qassem Soliemani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.