Whistleblower Says Secret Service Blocked Trump Security Audit

Senior leadership within the Secret Service blocked multiple auditors from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (OIG) from probing former President Donald Trump’s security detail, according to a new whistleblower report.

On Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent a letter to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe outlining the new charges of misconduct within the agency.

“A Secret Service whistleblower has alleged to my office that Secret Service headquarters blocked several auditors from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (OIG) from accessing recent Trump campaign events,” Hawley wrote. “The whistleblower alleges that the Secret Service denied access to DHS auditors because the former president is not receiving the full level of protective assets for all of his events, and Secret Service leadership wants to obscure or simply conceal this fact.”

According to the whistleblower, Hawley added, “Secret Service leadership is permitting OIG auditors only at select events — such as a recent rally in North Carolina — where President Trump receives the full level of protective assets, to create the impression he is receiving this level of protection at all times, when in fact he is not.”

The latest whistleblower disclosure comes two weeks after Hawley sent another letter to Rowe charging the agency with denying Trump “sufficient assets” for a campaign rally in Wisconsin. The failure to provide the former president with full security forced Republicans to cancel the Badger State event.

“Other whistleblowers with 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,” Hawley wrote in September.

The letter arrived just days after Trump survived a second assassination attempt when a man lined up a scoped “AK-47-style rifle” within just 300 to 500 yards of where the former president was golfing. Despite narrowly surviving a bullet to the face in Pennsylvania this summer, Trump’s security detail was still short of what would be provided to a sitting president.

In August, Hawley sent a letter to the Secret Service demanding answers about a whistleblower who told the senator requests from Trump’s security detail for additional resources were denied.

“One whistleblower with knowledge of Secret Service planning for former President Trump’s trip to Butler, Pennsylvania, alleges officials at Secret Service headquarters encouraged agents in charge of the trip not to request any additional security assets in its formal manpower request — effectively denying these assets through informal means,” Hawley wrote. “According to the allegations, officials within this office, preemptively informed the Pittsburgh Field Office that the Butler rally was not going to receive additional security resources because Trump is a former president and not the incumbent president or vice president.”

Trump triumphantly returned to Butler last weekend to hold a rally at the same fairgrounds where a 20-year-old would-be assassin blew off part of the former president’s ear.

“For 16 harrowing seconds during the gunfire, time stopped as this vicious monster unleashed pure evil from his sniper’s perch, not so far away,” Trump told the crowd. “But by the hand of providence and the grace of God, that villain did not succeed in his goal.”

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.