(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle began Monday’s much-anticipated House Oversight Committee hearing by declining to say why agents weren’t guarding the rooftop that was used by alleged Trump shooter Thomas Crooks as a perch for his assassination attempt.
Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., began the hearing by asking Cheatle a series of basic questions, including ones to confirm that her agency has a $3.1 billion budget and more than 8,000 employees.
Cheatle confirmed those numbers, but then became tight-lipped when Comer began to ask about the July 13 assassination attempt against presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, which also left a firefighter dead and at least two others hospitalized with severe injuries.
“At any point Saturday, did the Secret Service have agent on top of that roof?” Comer asked.
“We’re just nine days out from the incident,” Cheatle responded, citing an “ongoing investigation” as her reason for not providing basic information.
Comer continued to press the Secret Service director.
“Why did the Secret Service didn’t place a single agent on the roof? Wasn’t that building within the Secret Service’s perimeter that should’ve been secured?” Comer asked.
To that latter question, Cheatle did respond—if only to shift blame away from her agency. She said the building from whence Crooks fired at Trump was, in fact, outside of the Secret Service’s protective perimeter on the day of the Butler, Pennsylvania Trump rally.
Cheatle then declined to answer questions about how many Secret Service agents were with Trump on July 13. Comer was asking that question in the context of reports about Trump’s security detail being composed mostly of Homeland Security agents—as opposed to actual, trained Secret Service protectors.
“Quite frequently, we use agents from HSI,” Cheatle, said referencing DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI.
Cheatle did confirm reports that Crooks flew a drone over the Trump rally site on the day of the event. She said she received that information from the FBI, which is investigating the shooting.
Cheatle also insisted that the Secret Service provided all the security that Trump asked for. That response comes on the heels of the Secret Service admitting Saturday that it had turned down requests for additional federal resources sought by Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination last week.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
