In an e-mail sent on July 29 to the entire Uniformed Division, the individual strongly denounced the Secret Service’s handling of the rally in Pennsylvania where a would-be assassin attempted to kill former President Donald Trump. The sniper claimed the man was not intercepted because agents and counter snipers were forced to do their jobs “with their hands tied.” During the event, the gunman fired multiple shots toward the stage where Trump was speaking. One bullet narrowly missed Trump’s head, grazing his ear, while one attendee was killed, and three others were injured. The Secret Service sniper vowed to continue speaking out about the agency’s security failures “until 5 high level supervisors (1 down) are either fired or removed from their current positions,” according to the e-mail, which was obtained by RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree. “This agency NEEDS to change, if not now, WHEN? The NEXT assassination attempt in 30 days? Because we all SHOULD expect another attempt to happen before November,” he wrote. “We’ve exposed our inability to protect our leaders due to our leadership. The technicians who worked on 7/13/24 in Butler, PA DID THEIR JOB with their hands tied,” he added. “Sadly, we have fallen short for YEARS," he continued. “We just got lucky and looked good doing it. I have conveyed these thoughts to not only supervisors (to include the current Captain) within CS, but those responsible for training us. Only to be brushed off as if those with less experience somehow knew more than me.” Last week, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was the first senior official to resign over the incident. Her departure came within days of her congressional testimony, where she admitted “significant” problems with security at the rally but failed to answer numerous questions about the shooting. The e-mail was published as FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate and Secret Service Acting Director Ronald L. Rowe Jr. faced questioning from the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees about the assassination attempt. On the day of Rowe’s testimony, Crabtree published a report citing unnamed sources who said that Rowe was directly involved in denying additional security resources, including counter snipers, to Trump’s security detail. Rowe has succeeded Cheatle as the department’s head following her resignation. The unnamed sources who spoke with Crabtree said it was Rowe’s decision alone to deny counter sniper teams to any Trump event outside of driving distance to Washington, D.C. Rowe vehemently denied these claims during his testimony.A U.S. Secret Service counter-sniper has warned of a potential assassination attempt within the next 30 days, attributing the threat to failures within the agency's leadership.
