Whistleblower Says Secret Service Refused Offer To Use Drones For Pennsylvania Trump Rally

A whistleblower has claimed that United States Secret Service agents refused an offer from local law enforcement to use drones at former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) shared the whistleblower’s claims in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday. Hawley has been digging into the rally and the Secret Service failures that may have contributed to the lapses in security that led to the attempted assassination of the former president, grave injuries to at least two others, and the death of firefighter Corey Comperatore.

“NEW — Whistleblower tells me local law enforcement partners & suppliers offered drones to Secret Service BEFORE the rally — but Secret Service declined,” Hawley posted on X, sharing a photo of the letter.

???????? NEW – Whistleblower tells me local law enforcement partners & suppliers offered drones to Secret Service BEFORE the rally – but Secret Service declined pic.twitter.com/UM0jfrMc9z

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 25, 2024

Hawley noted that the FBI’s investigation of the scene had included evidence that Trump’s would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, had used his own drone to surveil the site of the shooting — just hours before former President Trump took the stage there. He then pointed out the obvious question: “[W]hy was the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) not using its own drones?”

Hawley also quoted the whistleblower as saying that the USSS had declined the offer to use drones prior to the attack, but had changed course and asked that a drone be deployed in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

“It is hard to understand why the USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered, particularly given the fact that the USSS allowed the overfly the rally area with his own drone mere hours before the event. The failure to deploy drone technology is all the more concerning since, according to the whistleblower, the drones USSS was offered had the capability not only to identify active shooters but also to help neutralize them.”