Mere hours after a second alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley Monday released a damning whistleblower report laying out shocking Secret Service failures to protect the former president in the first attempt.

The 21-page report compiles earlier whistleblower allegations Hawley has obtained while scooping major news outlets, but adds several explosive charges Hawley says are new:

• The lead agent responsible for the entire Butler visit, including the rally, failed a key examination during their federal law enforcement training to become a Secret Service agent and was known to be a low-caliber agent.
• Secret Service intelligence units – teams of Secret Service agents paired with state and local law enforcement to handle reports of suspicious persons – were absent from the Butler rally.
• The hospital site where former President Trump received treatment after the shooting was poorly secured, and the hospital site agent could not answer basic questions about site Security.

Hawley’s report on the July 13 shooting says his findings “are highly damaging to the credibility of the Secret Service and DHS. They reveal a compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding.”

Yet, the report argues, “Following this catastrophic failure, the Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have all tried to evade real accountability. These agencies and their leaders have slow-walked congressional investigations, misled the American people, and shirked responsibility. …

“To date, Secret Service and DHS have provided virtually no answers, and there remain many outstanding questions,” the report says, noting the questions include:

• Who, within the Secret Service or DHS, made the decision to deny counter sniper coverage to the rooftop from which Thomas Crooks shot former President Trump on July 13?
• When will Secret Service or DHS publicly name the lead site agent for the rally and the lead agent for the Butler visit?
• Did the Acting Secret Service Director ever deny resources to the Trump campaign, or USSS counter sniper teams, as has been reported in the press?

In an ominous statement about a bipartisan task force’s upcoming report last week, Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, warned that “I think the American people will be shocked, astonished and appalled by what we will report to them about the failures of the Secret Service in this assassination attempt of a former president.”

But Hawley’s report already includes a damning timeline that lays bare multiple and repeated Secret Service failures to prevent Trump’s shooting in the ear – narrowly missing his head – by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks somehow managed to shoot the former president while prone on an exposed rooftop not far from the rally stage, but only after:

• having been spotted as suspicious an hour before the shooting by rallygoers and law enforcement;
• being seen in possession of a rangefinder;
• having his photo shared in law enforcement group chat over half an hour before the shooting;
• having his rangefinder reported to Secret Service 20 minutes before the shooting.
• This was all before President Trump took the stage at 6:03 p.m. Some three minutes before his shooting, “State or local law enforcement observes Crooks on the AGR building.”

Yet, the report alleges Crooks managed to get off eight shots.

The report goes into substantial detail regarding the Secret Service’s failures in Butler, Pennsylvania – including treating the very exposed outdoor rally as a “loose” security event – no threat-detection dogs at entry, easy access to backstage areas and no drone surveillance, though it had been offered by local law enforcement.

“Two months have now elapsed since former President Donald J. Trump was nearly assassinated. And the American people still know far too little about why this happened. The Secret Service, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security have not been forthcoming with the American people. Far from it: they have closed ranks, refused to confirm or deny whistleblower allegations, and resisted meaningful oversight. In fact, sources with direct knowledge of Secret Service’s own internal investigation have alleged to Senator Hawley that the Department of Homeland Security is leaning on Secret Service not to comply with document requests from Congress.

“Instead, it has been left to courageous whistleblowers to tell the story of what really happened. They have testified to the serious security failures pervading every level of the Butler rally operation. They have highlighted longstanding problems at these security agencies, shedding light on decadent and unserious internal cultures.”

Arguing that “left alone, these agencies will not reform themselves,” Hawley’s report calls on Congress and the president “to clean house at these failing agencies at the earliest possible opportunity.”