Hawley Whistleblower: USSS Refused Drones Before Trump Shooting

The U.S. Secret Service refused offers to use drones at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania before the failed assassination attempt there, a whistleblower told Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told House members Monday that she was awaiting an investigation to determine whether the service did use drones to help secure the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“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 with an image of a letter he sent to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

While it appears the Secret Service did not rely on drones to help secure the site, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the alleged shooter successfully flew his own drone around the venue two hours before opening fire.

“According to one whistleblower, the night before the rally, U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally,” Hawley wrote Mayorkas.

“This means that the technology was both available to USSS and able to be deployed to secure the site. Secret Service said no. The whistleblower further alleges that after the shooting took place, USSS changed course and asked the local partner to deploy the drone technology to surveil the site in the aftermath of the attack.”

Hawley adds “it is hard to understand why USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered, particularly given the fact the USS permitted the shooter to overfly the rally area with his own drone mere hours before the event.”

The senator further says the drones offered to USSS “had the capability not only to identify active shooters but also to help neutralize them.”

Hawley gave Mayorkas a week to supply all records and communications concerning the availability of drone usage at the July 13 rally.

Law enforcement personnel are heard discussing the need for a drone to inspect and secure an onsite water tower in the minutes following the attempted assassination attempt on Trump, bodycam video released Wednesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, shows.

Both Hawley and Grassley are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on Tuesday to examine the security failures leading to the assassination attempt.