Former President Joe Biden's U.S. Secret Service received a credible threat on President Donald Trump's life 10 days before last July 13's Butler, Pennsylvania rally, but chose to leave the assigned details for Trump and the rally in the dark.
"This past weekend, the Government Accountability Office produced [to] me its report on the July 13 assassination attempt," Grassley told the Senate in a floor speech Monday night.
"The Government Accountability Office's report starts by stating, 'The U.S. Secret Service failed to implement security measures that could've prevented the assassination attempt on then-former President Donald J. Trump during a July 13, 2024, campaign rally.'
Had the assigned security details for the rally and Trump received the "siloed" classified intelligence, the event and the president could have had bolstered its security measures that ultimately failed.
"However, the Secret Service's siloed information sharing practices, such as requesting that only personnel within an individual’s chain of command be briefed on threat information, contributed to members of the advance team not receiving relevant information," the report summary concluded. "Making changes to Secret Service policies to require it to proactively share threat information internally could help ensure its agents and partners will have information needed to provide effective protection."
Not only did the Biden administration fail to protect its official political opponent – just hours before Trump would accept the RNC presidential nomination and just days before Biden would step out of the race officially – but it also covered up its failures in the face of oversight, according to Grassley.