A new report said a Secret Service countersniper is irate at the failures that took place on the day former President Donald Trump was shot.
The report posted on X by Real Clear Politics White House correspondent Susan Crabtree cited an email from a sniper whose name is not shown.
The email said he would continue to call out the Secret Service failures on that day until “5 high-level supervisors (1 down) are either fired or removed from their current positions.” The reference is to the resignation of former Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle.
“This agency NEEDS to change,” the email said, “if not now, WHEN? The NEXT assassination in 30 days?”
🚨🚨🚨 EXCLUSIVE: A Secret Service counter sniper sent an email Monday night to the entire Uniformed Division (not agents) saying he will not stop speaking out until “5 high-level supervisors (1 down) are either fired or removed from their current positions.” The counter sniper… pic.twitter.com/0dg99EESQk
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) July 30, 2024
The email warned the Secret Service, “we all SHOULD expect another assassination attempt to happen before November” because “We’ve exposed our inability to protect our leaders due to our leadership.”
The email said snipers who worked the Trump rally on July 13 “DID THEIR JOB with their hands tied.”
The sniper wrote that managers think of countersnipers as “‘guys who sit on the roof’ and don’t do much,” but said the mission of the Secret Service is not to guard “an EMPTY White House located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” but to stop “another JFK style assassination, in whatever city that may be.”
Does the Secret Service need a complete overhaul?
“Sadly we have fallen short for YEARS, We just got lucky and looked good doing it. I have conveyed these thoughts to not only supervisors (to include the current Captain) within CS, but those responsible for training us (SOTS/CS). Only to be brushed off as those with less experience somehow knew more than me,” the sniper wrote.
“The team I was once proud to be a part of, is something I have to somehow hide as I move into my next career. Who wants to hire a USSS CS guy who failed? That’s the public perception I’m now faced with. The USSS CS team is a stain I will never be able to cleanse,” he wrote.
“Failure is not an option, and on 7/13/24, WE failed. Not because of commitment or sense of dedication. But because our SUPERVISORS (aka leadership) knew better and thought our concerns were less than important,” the email said.
“The motto of the USSS…CYA. And every supervisor is doing it right now,” the sniper concluded.
During testimony Tuesday, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told Congress there was a total breakdown on the day Trump was shot.
“Based on what I know right now, neither the Secret Service countersniper teams nor members of the former president’s security detail had any knowledge that there was a man on the AGR roof with a firearm,” he said, according to Axios.
Rowe was referring to the roof used by Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot Trump.
He said agents were not aware “the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots.”
A report in Real Clear Politics that cited sources it did not name said Rowe was instrumental in limiting the size of the security detail protecting Trump over the past two years.
The report said Rowe has the power to unilaterally deny resources to a Trump event that was beyond driving distance from Washington.
