Top Secret Service agent in Pittsburgh says he was kept in dark on ‘credible’ threat ahead of Butler rally

The Secret Service special agent in charge (SAIC) of the Pittsburgh field office was not informed of credible threats to former President Trump ahead of his July 13 outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and detailed in handwritten notes that they didn’t learn about the threats until after the assassination attempt when they saw it on television. 

In a preliminary report on the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump released on Wednesday by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, top senators listed several key failures of the Secret Service.

“Why am I hearing that there were threats to the site on TV,” the SAIC of the Pittsburgh office wrote in a handwritten note after the attempt. 

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“How can the SAIC of our [field office] not know about any threats and why did they feel that only one part of [Special Operations Divisions] was sufficient to cover it instead of the entire package,” the note continued.

According to the report, Secret Service counter snipers had been approved and sent to the Butler event due to “credible intelligence” of a threat. However, many of the Secret Service personnel interviewed by the committee, which they said included the intelligence advance agent and the SAIC of the field office, said they were not made aware of the threat.

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A screenshot taken from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee interim report into the Trump assassination attempt shows an excerpt of notes taken after the July 13 rally. (Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

In fact, “only two of the [Secret Service] personnel the Committee has interviewed were made aware that there was a credible threat related to former President Trump prior to July 13,” the report reads. Only one of those personnel members was then made privy to the underlying classified information about the threat.

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Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testifies before a joint hearing on Capitol Hill on July 30, 2024. (Michael A. McCoy for Washington Post via Getty Images)

Per the…