Report: USSS Requested Emergency Funding Weeks Ago

After the foiled second assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life at a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Biden-Harris Administration is finally taking action by seeking additional congressional funding for the U.S. Secret Service. President Biden said yesterday, “The service needs more help. . . . Congress should respond to their needs.” However, the White House Office of Management and Budget initially requested more protection, labeled an “anomaly request,” in August.

Amid the initial request was the shocking admission that if the Secret Service didn’t increase protection quickly, “the Secret Service would have insufficient resources to sustain and enhance protective operations.” Well, we saw what happened when President Trump didn’t have sufficient protection around the perimeter of the golf course in Florida.

So last month the White House had admitted that the Secret Service protection wasn’t ramped up enough in the days leading up to the second assassination attempt. This raises all sorts of questions as to why not. Even far-Left Members of Congress are raising concerns, such as Representative Ro Khanna (CA-17), who wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post demanding that Congress provide adequate protection for Trump, “whatever the cost.”

Why is only money preventing proper Secret Service protection? Knowing the danger that Trump faced first in Butler, Pennsylvania, and just recently in West Palm Beach, Florida, why can’t Congress allocate resources to shore up protection for the leading GOP presidential candidate? Unfortunately, I don’t think dollars alone will fix the issues within the Secret Service.

Unlike the mass security failures in Butler, the Secret Service did its job protecting President Trump on the golf course. The agents identified the gun barrel before it fired. At the same time, if Trump had the proper protection, no one would have been able to get in his vicinity.

Supposedly, Congress is mired in passing a spending bill for an October 1 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. But that’s no excuse for why Congress can’t get a standalone bill to fund the Secret Service. In recent days we’ve seen Congress move quickly to pass emergency funding for Ukraine and Israel. The government loves to spend money, so priority should be given to protecting President Trump.

Back in July, the ACLJ filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into the Secret Service’s failures on the day President Trump was shot at the Butler rally. After what happened at the Florida golf course, Americans deserve answers. Sign our petition to demand answers for the Secret Service failures and for President Trump to receive the needed protection.

Speaking of addressing other government agency failures, the ACLJ filed a FOIA request back in January over Deep State targeting of conservatives. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan had exposed the FBI for targeting conservatives’ bank statements that had purchases labeled “MAGA” or “Trump” or came from stores like the Bass Pro Shop. The FBI even went so far as to screen Bible purchases. All of these actions were unconstitutional attacks on liberty.

We just received a partial victory yesterday regarding this FOIA. ACLJ Senior Counsel CeCe Heil elaborated:

When we sent out our FOIA, it was because the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee had come across an actual report . . . titled “Domestic Violent Extremists Emboldened in Aftermath of Capitol Breach.” And that report was shared with these financial institutions for the purpose of alerting private sector partners of the January 6 violent breach by suspected domestic violent extremists in the U.S. Capitol building. And it would serve as a driver for a diverse set of what they call “the domestic violence extremists.” . . . We wanted to see that report, and we got denied. Now you have to go through an administrative appeal. . . . [We] did get a response back from the Administrative Appeals Department, saying that they have looked at our appeal, and they’re actually remanding our request to the FBI for a further search for responsive records to that specific report.

Effectively, the FBI tried to stonewall the ACLJ over our FOIA. In similar instances, we usually have to go to court to procure the requested documents. But here we were able to get this pivotal document that exposed the Deep State’s targeting of conservatives without fighting in court.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of the lack of movement by Congress to provide adequate Secret Service protection for President Trump. Also, ACLJ Senior Counsel for International and Government Affairs Jeff Ballabon reacted to news of Israel’s explosive pagers successfully attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Watch the full broadcast below: