Secret Service turned down drone technology for Trump rally

A whistleblower has just made a bombshell claim about the U.S. Secret Service concerning the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. 

What the whistleblower revealed is that the Secret Service actually turned down drone technology that could have been used to help secure the campaign event where the shooting took place.

The whistleblower's claim has been revealed by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) in a letter that the senator wrote on Thursday to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas.

🚨🚨 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

The details

This comes as the assassination attempt on Trump continues to be investigated. The investigation, thus far, has revealed numerous failures by the Secret Service to properly secure the site at which the Trump campaign event was held.

Something that could have been used - and often is used - by law enforcement to secure such a site is a drone. It was previously reported that the Secret Service did not use a drone at the campaign event because they lacked the resources to do so.

But, now, a whistleblower claims that the Secret Service was actually offered drones by local law enforcement and that the Secret Service turned this offer down.

Hawley writes:

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. 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.

The question that we all have to ask ourselves is why the Secret Service turned the offer down. At the time of this writing, there does not appear to be a good answer to this question.

Do you know who did have a drone?

The answer is the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

It turns out that, before the shooting, Crooks actually used a drone to surveil the area.

This fact was confirmed by FBI Director Christopher Wray during testimony that he recently provided to Congress about the FBI's investigation of the assassination attempt on Trump.

"The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, flew a drone about 200 yards from the rally venue, and had it up in the air for about 11 minutes, just hours before the shooting, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday," ABC News reports:

The outlet adds, "The drone -- which was recovered in the shooter’s car -- was flown at about 3:50 p.m., he said."