Secret Service says it may have turned down requests for more Trump security in past

After a gunman nearly killed Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally last week, officials are racing to understand how a former president was left so vulnerable to attack, despite his Secret Service protection detail.

The vaunted unit has denied assertions that it turned down requests for additional security resources at the Pennsylvania event, but admitted on Saturday it may have rebuffed similar requests from the Trump team in the past, according to The Washington Post.

The security agency told the paper it had new information, indicating its headquarters may have turned down some requests from Trump’s team for additional resources.

The denials included rejections for more security at public outings like Trump’s visits to sporting events, and a denial for more counter-snipers at a 2023 rally in small-town South Carolina surrounded by numerous residential and commercial buildings, unnamed sources told The Post.

Since the assassination attempt, the Secret Service has maintained that it didn’t reject any Trump requests about the event.

“The assertion that a member of the former president’s security team requested additional security resources that the U.S. Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the day after the shooting. “In fact, recently the U.S. Secret Service added protective resources and capabilities to the former president’s security detail.”

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who fired on Donald Trump, hid on the roof of the American Glass Research building, about 400 feet away from the rally stage, outside the secure area guarded by Secret Service agents and metal detectors.

Security personnel had multiple