Top officials in the United States Secret Service (USSS) are stonewalling Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph Cuffari‘s probe into security lapses that resulted in the July 13 assassination attempt on President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. In the aftermath of the attempt on Trump’s life, managers within the USSS told employees to notify them if they received requests for documents, information, or interviews from the Inspector General—suggesting the agency wished to coach potential witnesses before speaking with the government watchdog.
Internal USSS emails, first obtained by RealClearPolitics, direct employees to immediately inform their supervisor if they are contacted by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Specifically, USSS management indicated they intended to present “an organized response” to Cuffari’s probe. The email alert came just days after the OIG had released a report critical of the USSS’s handling of the January 6 Capitol riots.
Senior leaders in the USSS acknowledged that, typically, employees would not need to clear with their supervisors any interviews with the OIG. However, the agency emphasized that regarding the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, they wished to avoid conflicting statements and reports.
“Generally, not an issue; however, this is NOT the normal course of action, and the Service needs awareness and to ensure an organized response with information in the correct context,” USSS officials wrote in one email.
In response to the revelations, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) warned in a letter to the USSS that the directive to employees could have had a “chilling effect” and hampered the interdepend investigation into its security failures. Grassley noted the emails appear intended to suggest that USSS management was and is keeping tabs on employee communications with both the OIG investigations and parallel Congressional inquiries.
