Members of Congress have learned that would-be Donald Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was spotted by the Secret Service 10 minutes before he walked on stage and 20 minutes before he was shot.
On Saturday, Crooks, 20, shot Trump multiple times, severing his ear, injuring several aides and tragically killing former firefighter Corey Comperatore.
After waiting days to learn more about the assassination attempt, lawmakers were briefed Wednesday by the FBI and Secret Service on key details of the ongoing investigation.
Sources involved in the call told DailyMail.com that it took more than an hour from the time the shooter was seen until he fired the first shot. What is even more worrying is that Secret Service snipers spotted Crooks on the roof 20 minutes before he shot the former president.
At 5:52 pm the “suspected” shooter was spotted on the roof by snipers.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday, July 13.
Trump took the stage at 6:02 p.m.
Then, at around 6:12 p.m., Crooks’ first shots were heard.
“It’s an incredible amount of time they let pass before they shoot,” the source said.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, confirmed this in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.
“They had identified the shooter as a ‘suspect’ 19 minutes before the shooting,” he posted.
Lee said senators were only allowed to ask four questions during the briefing, which he described as “an arbitrary interruption of the call.”
To add insult to injury, officials who were present at the briefing did not provide any information as to why their response took so long.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle did not know how Crooks got onto the roof, the source added.
Crooks’ possible motive for committing such an atrocity was also questioned on the call.
Officials did not confirm a motive for the attack, saying its rationale remains a mystery.
Image of shooting suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks
A Secret Service sniper unit is seen on the roof behind Trump, believed to have returned fire on Crooks following his shooting of Trump.
They said they have yet to find any ideological material that could shed light on why Crooks decided to shoot the former president.
But they did reveal that the criminals operated several accounts on encrypted platforms that they are still working to gain access to, the source said.
“They identified him as a suspicious character because he had a rangefinder and a backpack. And this occurred over an hour before the shooting occurred,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said on Fox News Wednesday afternoon.
‘So you’d think that throughout that hour you shouldn’t lose sight of the individual.’
“Someone should investigate this kind of thing. There is no evidence that this happened.”
The Wyoming Republican later released a statement calling the meeting “a 100 percent cover-your-ass briefing.”
A screenshot from a video shows the shooter was killed by the Secret Service, according to an agency source.
Police officers stand over the body of the shooter on a rooftop near the Trump rally
US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has yet to resign despite calls for her to do so.
U.S. Secret Service agents surround the stage as other agents cover Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said the agency’s handling of the protest was “unacceptable” Tuesday night, but she has previously sought to shift blame elsewhere.
Shortly after the shooting, he said local authorities were in charge of securing the building where Crooks was located.
He later backtracked on Tuesday, saying the Secret Service was “solely responsible” for failing to prevent the attack.
There are multiple investigations into the shooting, both within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency that oversees the Secret Service, and in Congress.
Cheatle is expected to testify about the shooting before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
