An internal Secret Service investigation confirms that multiple catastrophic security failures occurred prior to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired eight bullets into the crowd, hitting Trump in the ear and wounding three rally-goers, one fatally, on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, at a rally.
In a new report, officials have called the entire operation to protect the former president “alarmingly sloppy” and its communications system “significantly flawed.”
Much has already been revealed about irregular communication between local police, but the investigation found that the Secret Service did not have access to real-time updates from local police.
When nearby authorities were contacted about a suspicious man who appeared at the rally, he was not heard on Secret Service Radio, which is used by the service instead of the military-backed systems employed to protect the president and vice president.
An internal Secret Service investigation confirms that multiple and catastrophic security failures occurred before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump
Officials, in a new report, have called the entire operation to protect the former president “alarmingly sloppy” and that its communications system had “significant weaknesses” that led to the president being shot.
The snipers who ultimately eliminated Crooks were initially told to text photos to a single Secret Service official, meaning a bulletin could not be sent to all locations.
This activity took place even though police had seen Crooks carrying a rangefinder and said he was behaving strangely.
No one in the Secret Service could then learn of authorities’ attempt to find Crooks after he was spotted as Trump began his speech and never secured the roof of the AGR building he used for the shooting, senior administration officials told the Associated Press. Washington Post.
The investigation reportedly went beyond the shooting, however, with the revelation that the Secret Service was slow to step up security for Trump during the campaign, despite an Iranian plot to kill American political candidates.
American leaders, such as Senator Richard Blumenthal, who sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, have said they expect a bombshell from the results of the investigation.
“I think the American people will be shocked, amazed and horrified by what we will report to them about the failures of the Secret Service in this attempted assassination of the former president,” he said Thursday.
Leaders have already begun to emerge within the organization after disgraced director Kim Cheadle resigned following the shooting.
The Secret Service confirmed that the deputy director of the Office of Protective Operations, Mike Plati, resigned before the report was released Friday, while top executive John Buckley and an unnamed senior agent based in Pittsburgh will retire.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired eight bullets into the crowd, hitting Trump in the ear and wounding three rally-goers, one fatally, on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, at a rally.
In August, a whistleblower claims the top Secret Service agent in charge of Donald Trump’s deadly rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was “inexperienced” and “failed to implement proper security protocols.”
Last week, a bombshell congressional report claimed that would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was incapacitated by a local police officer before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Two months after Crooks shot the former president in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a preliminary report by Rep. Clay Higgins offered a different narrative than the official one pushed by the FBI.
Although it was initially claimed that Crooks was shot in the head within seconds by a Secret Service sniper, Higgins’ report claimed it was actually a local SWAT operator who stopped the gunman’s hail of bullets.
The congressman said the local police officer’s shot “hit Crooks’ rifle and shattered his face, neck and right shoulder because the stock (of the gun) broke,” meaning Crooks was unable to continue shooting before he died.
This comes amid growing scrutiny over the FBI and Secret Service investigations into the shooting, weeks after Higgins also revealed that Crooks’ body was mysteriously cremated with FBI approval after just 10 days.
A bullet severed the former president’s ear while two others were seriously injured and former firefighter Corey Comperatore tragically lost his life while heroically defending his family from the fire.
Trump recovered from his injuries and continued his campaign, appearing at the Republican National Convention two days later.