BREAKING: Local law enforcement offered drones to Secret Service ahead of Trump assassination attempt—Secret Service DECLINED: whistleblower

Senator Josh Hawley revealed on Thursday that a whistleblower has come forward telling him that local law enforcement partners offered drones to the Secret Service ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania rally where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump, but the Secret Service declined the offer.

"According to one whistleblower, the night before the rally, US Secret Service repeatedly denied offers from a local law enforcement partner to utilize drone technology to secure the rally," Hawley wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. "This means that the technology was both available to USSS and able to be deployed to secure the sight."

"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."

Hawley noted that FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed in testimony before Congress Wednesday that Crooks had flown a drone near the rally site hours ahead of Trump taking the stage on July 13, asking "This raises an obvious question: why was the US Secret Service not using its own drones?"

"It is hard to understand why USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered, particularly given the fact USSS permitted the shooter to overfly the rally area with his own drone mere hours before the event. The failure to deploy drone technology is all the more concerning since, according to the whistleblower, the drones USSS was offered had the capability not only to identify active shooters but also to help neutralize them."

Hawley demanded that Mayorkas provide all records and communications regarding the availability or use of drones on the day of the rally no later than seven days from when the letter was sent, and also ordered that Mayorkas testify before Congress next week "about these staggering security failures by your department."

Then-US Secret Service head Kimberly Cheatle testified before Congress on Monday, and resigned the following day after mounting pressure for her to do so. In a letter to USSS for her resignation Cheatle wrote, "As I stated in the hearing yesterday, all of you are worthy of trust and confidence. You deserve the nation's support in carrying out our critical mission. One of my favorite things about this workforce is that the men and women are fiercely committed to our mission.”

Wray said during Wednesday's hearing, that that around 4 pm on the day of the shooting, "the shooter was flying the drone around the area" of the rally, not over the stage but an estimated 200 yards away. A drone was recovered from Crooks’ vehicle.

"We think but we do not know so again, this is one of these things that's qualified because of our ongoing review, that he was live streaming, you know viewing the footage from that again about 11 minutes and around the 3:50, 4 o'clock pm range."