Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe is testifying before a joint Senate panel on Tuesday about the agency’s communications at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a man tried to assassinate Trump.
Rowe is offering details about the security arrangements that were put in place for Trump’s rally on July 13.
Rowe told lawmakers he was “ashamed” of the protection failures that day and said he visited the site of the shooting as one of his first acts as acting director.
“I went to the roof of the AGR building where the assailant fired shots and laid in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight. What I saw made me ashamed,” Rowe said in his opening statement. “As a career law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”
“To prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future, I directed our personnel to ensure every event site security plan is thoroughly vetted by multiple experienced supervisors before it is implemented,” he added. “It is clear to me that other protective enhancements could have strengthened our security at the Butler event site.”
Rowe testified that Trump’s security detail didn’t have “any knowledge” there was an attacker on the roof with a gun prior to shots ringing out.
“It is my understanding those personnel were not aware that the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots,” he said. “Prior to that, they were operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working on issue of a suspicious individual prior to the shots being fired.”
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate is also testifying before the Senate panel on Tuesday, and said in his opening statement that the investigation remains focused on motive, identifying any potential co-conspirators and building out the timeline of the shooter’s actions.
“Thus far, though absolutely nothing has been ruled out, the investigation has not identified a motive nor any co-conspirators or others with advanced knowledge,” Abbate said.
Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service, Ronald L. Rowe, Jr. and Deputy Director of the FBI Paul Abbate are sworn-in before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, July 30, 2024, in Washington.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
Abbate also told Congress that they recently discovered a social media account from 2019 to 2020, which appeared to belong to the shooter, but Abbate couched it as preliminary.
“There were over 700 comments posted from this account,” Abbate said. “Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature,” he said.
Rowe is also prepared to tell senators that Secret Service leadership was communicating directly with the Butler Emergency Services Unit (ESU) or their equivalent of a SWAT team. The Secret Service says they have uncovered text messages that have been reviewed and interviews they’ve conducted with officials there on site that give them a fuller picture of what took place.
The text messages, according to a source, are with a senior official from the Butler ESU team; they detail the Butler official describing the personnel that were available and some information about deployments, according to the source.
The Butler ESU was responsible for helping to put together the security package outside the Secret Service bubble.
The source confirmed that the Secret Service never had direct communications with police from Beaver County, as ABC News reported on Monday morning.
The source said the Secret Service was communicating with Butler and that the Beaver County team was providing mutual aid or support to Butler.
Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service, Ronald L. Rowe, Jr. and Deputy Director of the FBI Paul Abbate appear for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, July 30, 2024, in Washington.
Umit Bektas/Reuters
Rowe was named acting director after former Secret Service chief Kim Cheatle resigned earlier this month after facing calls to step aside over the Trump assassination attempt. Formerly, Rowe was No. 2 at the agency.
Rowe told lawmakers he is taking “immediate steps” to avoid repeating failures at the Trump rally, including expanding the use of unmanned aerial systems to check unprotected, improving site communications with local partners and increasing the number of security details to address a heightened security environment.
Rowe also said he heard the calls for “accountability” and noted the Secret Service is reviewing the actions and decision-making of personnel leading up to the rally.
“If this investigation reveals Secret Service employees violated agency protocols, those employees will be held accountable to our disciplinary process,” he said.