Secret Service blocked watchdog to hide inconsistent security protocols at Trump events: whistleblower

US Secret Service officials have kept federal auditors from Donald Trump’s campaign events to hide “that the former president is not receiving a consistent level of protective assets,” according to new whistleblower allegations.Sen.Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) revealed the claims in a Tuesday letter to Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe — and demanded immediate answers about whether the protective agency was impeding an internal investigation into the 45th president’s security detail.“The whistleblower alleges that the Secret Service denied access to [Department of Homeland Security] auditors because the former president is not receiving the full level of protective assets for all of his events, and Secret Service leadership wants to obscure or simply conceal this fact,” Hawley wrote.Auditors with the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) have only been allowed to investigate “select events,” including a recent Trump rally in Wilmington, NC, the whistleblower claimed to the senator’s office.Hawley informed DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari in a separate letter of the allegations, noting that his office’s auditors had only observed the Secret Service’s “best” Presidential Protect Division Agents in North Carolina.“As you continue to audit the agency’s programs and activities, you should be aware of these allegations, which indicate that the Secret Service is not in fact cooperating with your auditors and is instead painting a false picture,” the Missouri Republican added.Following two assassination attempts against the former president, Rowe said that Trump, 78, would receive the “highest levels” of security — equivalent to the coverage given President Biden.Rowe took responsibility in a press conference last month for the security failures that led to Trump being struck in the ear by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks‘ bullet at a Butler, Pa., rally on July 13.But he denied any lapses had allowed Ryan Wesley Routh to...