The Secret Service on Friday released a summary of its internal investigation into the July 13 assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
On July 13 President Trump was grazed in the ear after a 20-year-old gunman named Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed on the roof and took several shots at Trump and rallygoers in Butler.
Secret Service failed to secure AGR building next to Trump rally. Thomas Crooks somehow got on the roof, bear-crawled into position and took 8 shots at Trump.
WATCH:
Here is the full clip.
1- shot at trump
2- ss return fire
3- you hear “shooter down”
4- they stand trump up
5- he asked for his shoes
6- Pumps fist and fightIt’s really unreal.
– tyler hogge (@thogge) July 13, 2024
An internal investigation found that in addition to communication failures, the Secret Service did not address the risk of row-sites from the AGR building to the Trump stage.
“Multiple Secret Service personnel misjudged this line-of-sight risk for the former president as acceptable, leading to inadequate elimination,” the unclassified report said.
Secret Service expected farm equipment will be in place to eliminate the line-of-site problem, but they were not used.
“Site advancement officers failed to recognize gaps in the site’s construction and failed to advise that potential line-of-sight concerns could not be mitigated,” the report said.
According to the report, Secret Service agents “did not order the dispatch of appropriate personnel, either Secret Service or state/local law enforcement partners, to the AGR building area after learning of a suspicious individual with a range finder.”
The photograph of Thomas Crooks was taken shortly before he was able to climb onto the roof of the building.
At 5:14 p.m., just one hour before the attempted assassination of Trump, a member of the Beaver County sniper team took a photo of Crooks checking his cell phone.
Here are some close-up photos:
An hour later Crooks was spotted bear-crawling on the roof of the AGR building with a gun. Bystanders shouted and pointed people out to law enforcement but they did not neutralize Crooks until after he took 8 shots at Trump and killed innocent rallygoer Corey Comperatore.
WATCH:
Wild video shows the shooter sneaking into position as people point him to law enforcement at a Trump rally. pic.twitter.com/pYRvkSWZSb
– Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) July 15, 2024
According to the official narrative, Crooks did the following on his own without the help of insiders:
- Fly a drone over the Pennsylvania fairgrounds and get aerial footage of the layout of the rally on the day of the event – including 2 hours before Trump takes the stage.
- Get the range finder through security.
- Evading law enforcement officers from various state, local and federal agencies.
- Somehow ‘climbed’ up on the roof with a gun 450 feet away from Trump, the bear crawled to the perfect vantage point as bystanders alerted the police and still managed to take 8 shots at Trump.
- A vehicle packed with explosives was parked near a Trump rally.
- Crooks was able to walk the premises after the Snipers took photos of him looking suspicious.
- The sniper in the second story window was only 40 feet away from Crooks and did not neutralize him.
- Trump was still able to take the stage after Crooks was deemed suspicious by the Secret Service.
Since the tragic events of July 13, 2024, the Secret Service has made the following changes, according to the report:
1. The agency provides the highest level of Secret Service protection to the Vice President and former President Trump, commensurate with the level of the President.
2. Increase the staffing level of special agents assigned to former President Trump’s protective detail.
3. Develop the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for aerial observations in space.
4. Expand the use of counter unmanned aerial systems to reduce the use of UAS as a kinetic attack vector.
5. Address radio interoperability by requiring, and ensuring through appropriate oversight, the co-location of Secret Service personnel with state and local public security partners in a unified command post.
6. Assigned Secret Service and Department of Defense personnel to help in the development of a radio communication network, with redundancy, in Secret Service-protected campaign sites.
7. Implemented an agreement with Federal partners to secure additional federal law enforcement personnel and assets to support the Secret Service’s protective operations while the agency’s personnel and assets are temporarily committed to other protective visits.
8. Expanded Secret Service tactical coverage, supplemented by other federal tactical units, to support protective operations for the Vice President, former President Trump, and others.
9. Expanded use of ballistic countermeasures in the Secret Service protected camping campaign.
10. Expand the use of technical countermeasures and technology to improve the security of former President Trump and his residence.
11. Implement various organizational changes to better align technology with appropriate operational levels within the agency and use emerging technology research and development to give the Secret Service a technical advantage over its adversary.
When it comes to “accountability,” the Secret Service Brief is full of references to poor decision-making by the two female agents (and their supervisors who didn’t check their work) who were responsible for the overall security of the J13 Butler rally. Although the USSS summary does not… pic.twitter.com/V4lW5uS8Yr
– Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) November 1, 2024
