-PJ
Secret Service denied requests for more Trump security
Claims “staffing shortages”
Top officials repeatedly rejected requests from Trump’s security detail for more manpower and gear at events before attempted assassination, at times citing lack of resources, people familiar with the “asks” said.
pic—U.S. Secret Service agents remove former president Donald Trump from the stage during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Josh Dawsey and Carol D. Leonnig, July 20, 2024 at 6:48 p.m. EDT, washingtonpost.com
Top officials at the U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional resources and personnel sought by Donald Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday, according to four people familiar with the requests.
Agents charged with protecting the former president requested magnetometers and more agents to screen attendees at sporting events and other large public gatherings Trump attended, as well as additional snipers and specialty teams at other outdoor events, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive security discussions. The requests, which have not been previously reported, were sometimes denied by senior officials at the agency, who cited various reasons, including a lack of resources at an agency that has long struggled with staffing shortages, they said.
Those rejections — in response to requests that were several times made in writing — led to long-standing tensions that pitted Trump, his top aides and his security detail against Secret Service leadership, as Trump advisers privately fretted that the vaunted security agency was not doing enough to protect the former president.
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