As the Secret Service continues to face questions about the security failures that preceded the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the agency says there have been times when it did not provide full federal resources to the former president’s campaign.
“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,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement on Sunday.
“This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce public exposure of a protectee,” Guglielmi added.
The agency provided the statement in response to an inquiry from NPR about past security requests from the Trump campaign. Former presidents receive Secret Service protection for life, unless they decline it.
Trump and his campaign team have said that they’d requested additional security over the past two years.
Shortly after the July 13th attempt on Trump’s life, Guglielmi said in a post on X that the Secret Service had not rebuffed requests from the campaign for more security.
“Theres an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo,” Guglielmi wrote.
The new acknowledgment from the Secret Service comes as investigators continue to piece together a picture of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and his actions in the days and weeks leading up to the attack. It’s now understood that Crooks flew a drone over Trump's rally site in Butler, Pa., hours before the event, a source familiar with the matter who wasn't authorized to speak publicly told NPR on Sunday. The drone was on a programmed flight path, the source said.
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle is set to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Monday to field questions about the shooting and more.
Committee member Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told NPR he has “a whole lot of questions” about the attempted assassination and believes Cheatle should be fired.
Last week, Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, told NPR he was grateful former President Trump was OK following the attack and acknowledged that there had been “a failure” at the rally.
“But the matter is the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI, as well as the subject of an independent review that the president has commissioned, so I cannot speak to the facts of Saturday's event.”
NPR’s Amy Held and Ryan Lucas contributed to this story.
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