(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Reports have been circulating since last week that five Secret Service employees involved in the security failures that led to Donald Trump nearly being assassinated have been placed on leave.
However, The Washington Post reported Monday that those agents aren’t being disciplined. Instead, they get to work from home on “nonoperational duties,” said the Post, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
“The five agents were told to telework, which is not a disciplinary action and does not involve any finding of possible wrongdoing,” the Post reported.
In response to the news, a Secret Service spokesman reportedly said, “We are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.
“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,” the spokesman told the Post.
The five agents reportedly include included three agents as well as Timothy Burke, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office since 2016.
Burke reportedly oversaw the security plan for the Butler campaign event, and was also an agent on Trump’s security detail who visited Butler ahead of the visit to help with that plan.
According to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Burke told the Secret Service ahead of July 13 that his agency had limited resources for the Trump rally because it was also covering the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington, D.C.
Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt, whose organization represents federal whistleblowers, blasted the Secret Service for failing to hold its agents accountable for their failures.
🚨 Lots of inaccurate media reports out there right now about the USSS placing these six employees on admin leave. Admin leave is a paid status where you are not permitted to come into work–days "on the bricks" or "on the beach," as federal agents often call it.
That's not… https://t.co/rhyGM1wAbs
— Tristan Leavitt (@tristanleavitt) August 23, 2024
“Admin leave is a paid status where you are not permitted to come into work–days “on the bricks” or “on the beach,” as federal agents often call it. That’s not what’s happening here,” he said.
In a letter earlier this month to Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, Hawley called for the lead site agent from the Trump shooting to be suspended immediately. Hawley said whistleblowers have given him disturbing information about the Secret Service lead site agent’s track record. That agent reportedly is a female.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
