CV NEWS FEED // In a leaked email, a U.S. Secret Service counter-sniper warned that there might be another assassination attempt before the presidential election – or even in the next month – citing corruption in the leadership ranks of the agency.
RealClearPolitics correspondent Susan Crabtree wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday morning that the alleged whistleblower “sent an email Monday night to the entire Uniformed Division (not agents)” of the Biden-Harris administration’s Secret Service.
Crabtree noted that the Secret Service “quickly deleted the email,” according to “a knowledgeable source.”
The email’s author identified himself as a Marine Corps veteran who had spent over 20 years on the Secret Service’s Counter-Sniper team.
“This agency NEEDS to change,” wrote the counter-sniper in the email. “[I]f not now, WHEN? The NEXT assassination attempt in [sic] 30days?”
“Because,” he continued, “we all SHOULD expect another attempt to happen before November.”
“We’ve exposed our inability to protect our leaders due to our leadership,” the sniper continued in his email to the Uniformed Division.
He went on to draw a distinction between the actions of rank-and-file Secret Service members and the agency’s leadership during the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The technicians who worked that day “DID THEIR JOB with their hands tied,” he wrote. “Secret Service SUPERVISORS ‘knew better’ and the foot soldiers working, made the best of a bad situation that resulted in a civilian death and a near miss of the protectee.”
Retired Pennsylvania fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed during the assassination attempt. Comperatore died heroically, shielding his family from the gunfire.
A counter-sniper ultimately shot dead the would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, thus ending the rampage.
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The whistleblower continued in his email: “I know many look at the [counter-sniper] team as ‘guys who sit on the roof’ and don’t do much.”
“But our responsibility, our MISSION, is not about protecting an EMPTY White House,” he wrote. “It’s about preventing and stopping another JFK style assassination, in whatever city that may be. Sadly, we have fallen short for YEARS.”
The sniper stated that he has “conveyed these thoughts to not only supervisors … but those responsible for training us … Only to be brushed off as if those with less experience somehow knew more than me.”
“The team I was once proud to be a part of, is something I have to now somehow hide as I move into my next career,” the counter-sniper continued. “Who wants to hire a [Secret Service counter-sniper] guy who failed? That’s the public perception I’m now faced with.”
He called the July 13 failure “a stain I will never be able to cleanse.”
“Some of us take our job and responsibility seriously, DEADLY serious,” he wrote. “[F]ailure is not an option, and on 7/13/24, WE failed.”
“Not because of commitment or sense of dedication,” the sniper pointed out. “But because our SUPERVISORS (aka leadership) knew better and thought our concerns were less than important.”
The whistleblower concluded that the leadership of the Secret Service had behaved as if the agency’s “motto was CYA” – commonly understood to be an abbreviation of “cover your *ss.”
“And every supervisor is doing it right now,” he wrote.
During a Tuesday Senate hearing, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, pressed acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe over reports that the agency deleted the counter-sniper’s email.
Rowe took over as head of the Secret Service after the resignation of ex-Director Kim Cheatle a week ago following 10 days of scrutiny over the agency’s handling of the attempt on Trump’s life.
“A counter-sniper has decided to speak out about the culture at your agency and I think it is very telling,” Blackburn told Rowe, referring to the leaked email. “You’re the guy in charge.”
“I want to know how you feel about the fact that employees in your agency are worrying about covering their behind and not worried about protecting a former president,” the senator said.
Rowe responded: “I am hurt by that email … I’m hurt because my people are hurting right now. We need them.”
“Then why did somebody delete the email?” Blackburn asked him.
“I’ll get back to you on that,” Rowe said.
