Whistleblowers Tell Sen. Hawley Acting Secret Service Chief Personally Ordered Cuts Ahead of Trump Rally, Targeted Agents Who Raised Security Concerns | 1 Aug 2024 | Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is demanding Acting Secret Service Director Ronald L. Rowe Jr.'s response after agency whistleblowers alleged he "personally directed" personnel cuts that ultimately left former President Donald Trump vulnerable to a would-be assassin's bullet at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. According to Hawley, anonymous whistleblowers claimed the cuts affected the Secret Service Counter Surveillance Division (CSD), which then failed to conduct a proper threat assessment of the site. "The whistleblower claims that if personnel from CSD had been present at the rally, the gunman would have been handcuffed in the parking lot after being spotted with a rangefinder," Hawley wrote in his letter directed at Rowe.