Secret Service Takes Action After Attack On Trump
The Secret Service has made a decision after the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Close to a month after the attack, and after many failures of the agency were reported, some of the detail that was with the former president and others involved have been placed on leave, Fox News reported.
“One member of Trump’s personal protective team and four members of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh Field Office, including the special agent in charge, have been sidelined nearly six weeks after the incident. The five are still employed but are teleworking and are no longer allowed in the field. They cannot do any investigative work,” the report said.
“The news comes after the Secret Service concluded internal interviews to understand how Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to fire several shots from the AGR building in Butler. The Secret Service was not able to conduct the interviews right away because the FBI was interviewing them for a separate criminal investigation, according to a source briefed on both probes,” it said.
“Separately, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on Friday revealed that a Secret Service whistleblower has come forward to claim that officials at Secret Service headquarters encouraged agents in charge of the rally not to request any extra security assets in their formal planning request,” it said.
The Secret Service also confirmed that more disciplinary action could be on the horizon.
“The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure,” Secret Service Chief Of Communications Anthony Guglielmi said.
“The U.S. Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further,” he said.
The news came a month after former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle announced her resignation.
In a segment on Fox News, host Harris Faulkner spoke with Arizona GOP Rep. Andy Biggs about the news, which came just one day after Cheatle received harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
Faulkner seemed visibly stunned that the statement from the president included any mention of Jill Biden, who is rumored to have gotten Cheatle the job.
“We have the breaking news statement from President Biden. I’m glad you are with me so I can get your first reaction. He has just released a statement and here is the quote. Jill and I are grateful to director Kim Cheatle for her decades of public service,” Faulkner began.
“The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13th continues and I look forward to assessing its conclusion. We all know what happened that day can never happen again, end quote. A couple of curiosities I have about that. Why is Jill included. Not a condolence letter to someone after a loss, a personal loss. I would estimate she is included because the reason she even had that job as director of the United States Secret Service was because of her friendship with the First Lady,” Faulkner added.
Biggs responded: “Cheatle became the Secret Service director. I also think good grief, what do you have to do to be fired from this administration? The only people that have been fired are four staffers who smoked pot. You have somebody who almost gets the president – former president of the United States killed and does get an individual killed and other people wounded and you don’t get fired, what you get is a letter saying gee, we’re sorry to see you go kind of thing. I’m incensed as much by the failure of the Biden Administration at the very top once again to signal to the American people that he cares about the American people more than he cares about himself. I think this letter reflects more personal care than it does patriotic care.”
