(Ken Silva, Headline USA) DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari has told Congress that he’s being blocked from investigating the Secret Service in relation to its failures to protect Donald Trump when he was nearly assassinated on July 13, 2024.
Cuffari’s complaint was made public shortly before DHS Secretary Kristin Noem was fired from her job Thursday for seemingly unrelated reasons.
Cuffari told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that his office opened an investigation into how the Secret Service handles intelligence concerning threats to protectees. He said that an intelligence agency outside of DHS approved his request last year to access to information related to his investigation.
“However, since September 2025, I&A has refused to conduct my indoctrination, thereby stymieing our work on this project,” he said in a letter. “This is especially troubling given the other reported attempts on President Trump’s life coupled with the present worldwide conflict.”
🚨 🚨 FIRED DHS SEC KRISTI NOEM WAS BLOCKING OVERSIGHT OF HER RECORD AND THE SECRET SERVICE'S FAILURES AT BUTLER, THE TRUMP-APPOINTED DHS INSPECTOR GENERAL CHARGED.
Just days before Trump fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the Trump-appointed DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari… pic.twitter.com/MZC2Rq0aA6
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) March 5, 2026
The fact that Cuffari is being blocked from investigating Secret Service’s intelligence handling is particularly troubling given what transpired leading up to the Butler shooting.
Indeed, Trump’s security detail, let by special agent-in-charge Sean Curran, received intelligence of an Iranian threat against Trump—but agents in the Pittsburgh office told Congress that they were never informed of such a threat. Curran was never interviewed by Congress, and was later promoted to be the director of the entire Secret Service.
Cuffari’s letter further outlined several other investigations in which the DHS is being uncooperative, including a criminal probe with national security implications.
Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., told the DHS on Wednesday that he’ll be investigating the DHS stonewalling.
The DHS Inspector General has been blocked from investigating the Butler shooting since 2024. In October of that year, it was alleged that the Secret Service was blocking Homeland Security auditors from accessing all of Donald Trump’s campaign events, in an attempt to hide the fact that Trump isn’t receiving sufficient protection.
“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,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., former Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe at the time.
Sen. Grassley has released a whistleblower allegation that the Secret Service is interfering with the DHS IG's investigation into the Trump shooting.
This follows a whistleblower allegation from earlier this month that the Secret Service is blocking DHS IG auditors from attending… pic.twitter.com/7peyFMLe8m— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 31, 2024
“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.”
Additionally, a whistleblower told Sen. Chuck Grassley in October 2024 that Secret Service management was instructing its agents to inform their bosses if they get called by the DHS Inspector General for an interview.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
