(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the wake of the July 13 Trump shooting, a Secret Service counter sniper reportedly sent an email Monday night to many of his colleagues, warning that the agency isn’t prepared for the next assassination attempt against a high-level U.S. public official.
“This agency NEEDS to change,” the sniper wrote in the email, obtained by RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree. “If not now, WHEN? “The NEXT assassination in 30 days?”
The whistleblower accused senior Secret Service officials of focusing on “CYA”—cover your ass—instead of making necessary changes.
🚨🚨🚨 EXCLUSIVE: A Secret Service counter sniper sent an email Monday night to the entire Uniformed Division (not agents) saying he will not stop speaking out until "5 high-level supervisors (1 down) are either fired or removed from their current positions." The counter sniper… pic.twitter.com/0dg99EESQk
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) July 30, 2024
“The team I was once proud to be a part of, is something I have to somehow hide as I move into my next career,” he added. “Who wants to hire a USSS CS guy who failed? That’s the public perception I’m not faced with. The USSS CS team is a stain I will never be able to cleanse.”
The unnamed counter sniper’s email was apparently sent about 12 hours before Tuesday’s Senate hearing with new Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe. According to reporter Crabtree, the Secret Service deleted the email from its servers shortly after it was sent.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked Rowe about the matter at Tuesday’s hearing.
At first Rowe told Blackburn he was “hurt by that email. but not in the way you think I’m saying. I’m hurt because my people are hurting right now.”
That prompted Blackburn to ask why the Secret Service deleted the email. Rowe professed ignorance about that.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (Rep-TN) grills Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe on why the Secret Service deleted the whistleblower’s email. Do you think the Secret Service was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President Trump? pic.twitter.com/LT6yiLXact
— • ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ ™ • (@4Mischief) July 30, 2024
“I’ll look, I’ll get back to you on that [question of why the] agency deleted the email. May I address your question, and I will get back to you as to whether the email was deleted or not,” he said.
“My agency is hurting. Emotions are raw. I actually want to hear more from that [Uniform Division] officer, that technician in his email, he referenced that he had spent time serving our nation as a United States Marine, that he is a 20-year professional of the Secret Service.”
While Rowe promised Blackburn he would be a “change agent” within the Secret Service, his answers to other questions indicated otherwise. For instance, he refused to assign any blame to Trump’s July 13 Secret Service detail for almost getting the presidential frontrunner killed.
“I’ll tell you senator that I will not rush to judgment that people will be held accountable—and I will do so with integrity and not to rush to judgment and people unfairly persecuted,” he added.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., seemingly stunned by Rowe’s defiant response, retorted, “Unfairly prosecuted? You’ve got people who are dead!”
Republican lawmakers have vowed that they’ll continue to press the Secret Service to make substantial changes, and that they’ll continue probing the Trump assassination attempt.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
