Secret Service turned down local drone 'repeatedly' ahead of Trump July 13 rally: whistleblower - Yahoo! Voices
PITTSBURGH — Local law enforcement repeatedly offered to provide drone coverage in the sky above former President Trump’s July 13 campaign rally — where he survived a failed assassination attempt — but was rebuffed by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), according to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., citing a new whistleblower.
"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, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
"This means that the technology was both available to USSS and able to be deployed to secure the site. Secret Service said no."
WHISTLEBLOWER REVEALS WHY TRUMP RALLY OFFICER ASSIGNED TO SHOOTER'S PERCH MOVED
FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose agency has taken a lead role in the investigation, confirmed during a congressional hearing this week that the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, flew a drone of his own overhead before Trump took the stage.
"This raises an obvious question: why was the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) not using its own drones?" Hawley wrote.
The USSS did not ask for local partners to fly their drones until after the shooting was over and a counter-sniper took down the gunman, according to the whistleblower.
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