The US Secret Service has acknowledged that it rejected requests to strengthen former US President Donald Trump’s security with its resources for two years before the assassination attempt, The New York Times reported on Sunday, citing Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service.
At the same time, Guglielmi noted that the requests for beefed-up security did not specifically concern the event in Pennsylvania where Trump was wounded in a shooting, the report said.
He also added that in cases where the Secret Service was unable to provide additional security for Trump, it instead deployed state or local law enforcement officers or altered security plans to reduce the threat to Trump’s life, the report read.
The shooting took place on July 13 at a Trump rally in Butler, the US state of Pennsylvania. Trump sustained a gun wound to his right ear and was briefly hospitalized.
Thomas Crooks, 20, killed a member of the audience and injured two others in the crowd before the US Secret Service neutralized him. The FBI is investigating the incident as an assassination attempt and potential domestic terrorism.
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