On July 28, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) stated that local law enforcement sent radios to the U.S. Secret Service for cross-agency cooperation during the Trump event in Pennsylvania, but the SS never used them.
Johnson also stated that it was only after Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin, opened fire on Trump at 6:11 p.m. that counter-sniper teams “acquired” Crooks in their weapon sights.
Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday” that “we also have it confirmed that the Secret Service never used the radios that local law enforcement supplied the sniper teams.”
Johnson said that there were deadly repercussions from the communications issues that existed prior to and during Trump’s speech at the Butler Farm Show Inc. fairgrounds.
“So once again, we funneled all of the communication,” Johnson stated. “It is evident that this tragedy occurred because of a delay in responding to calls from the Secret Service, the sniper, and the SWAT teams, who were on separate lines from the patrol police and the sniper itself.”
“We didn’t exchange any messages with the Secret Service.”
Counter-snipers did not see Crooks as a target until after he began firing on Trump and the rally attendees sometime after 6:11 p.m., according to Johnson, the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
“They got him after the gunshots,” Johnson claimed. “But once again, in order to determine the precise facts, we require in-depth interviews with those people. It’s astounding how little information federal law enforcement has been providing.
On July 13, early in Trump’s rally address, Crooks fired an AR-15 rifle from about 130 yards north of the platform, striking Trump in the right ear. After firing seven more times, Crooks murdered retired Pennsylvania fire chief Corey Comperatore and gravely wounded two more men. A counter-sniper from the Secret Service then killed Crooks.
Director Kimberly Cheatle of the Secret Service resigned as a result of the worst security breach in agency history, which sparked at least seven congressional and police investigations.
Johnson said that the Secret Service had obtained images of Crooks from a counter-sniper at the American Glass Building 6 at 5:14 p.m., far in advance of the shooting incident. According to a preliminary shooting timeline made public by Johnson’s office, the counter-sniper who took the images saw Crooks for the first time at 5:10 p.m.
16 minutes before Crooks took the first shot, at 5:55 p.m., the event command center—which includes Secret Service agents—acknowledged receiving Crooks’ images, according to the chronology record.
On July 13, a local police sniper captured images of Thomas Matthew Crooks, a would-be assassin, near a retaining wall of the structure he used as a position to shoot Trump. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) provided the images.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed text messages exchanged between a local countersniper and his colleagues. The counter-sniper provided Grassley with the conversations, which showed that police had been aware of Crooks as a suspicious individual since 4:26 p.m., which is approximately 44 minutes earlier than initially stated.
A counter-sniper, leaving his duty shift, reported to the New York Times on July 28 that he saw Crooks sitting at a picnic table. According to a text, the officer said that Crooks saw him exit the two-story structure just behind Building 6, which is where Crooks then started his rifle attack.
According to Johnson, local police have provided the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations investigators with the majority of their material so far. The panel requested documents pertaining to the attempted assassination from seven state and local law enforcement organizations.
Johnson declared, “We want a specific timeframe.” “We require all of their correspondence, including text messages and written emails, as well as voice recordings of any spoken conversations.”
On July 30, the Secret Service Director, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., and the FBI Deputy Director, Paul Abbate, will testify before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Senate Judiciary Committee. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) will preside over the hearing.
Rowe will have a challenging task ahead of him. Johnson remarked, “He has a lot to explain.”
An anonymous person with inside knowledge of the rally schedule told Blaze News that there was almost no cooperation between the Secret Service and local law enforcement on July 13. According to the source, there were several Secret Service agents who were preoccupied in the crucial moments preceding the shooting.
“They didn’t have rehearsals, briefings, or talks about backup plans. The insider stated, “They didn’t have any briefings where everyone was present.”
Just before 7 p.m. on July 13, two SWAT officers examined the body of potential assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks. In the background is the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally that Crooks fired a rifle into, killing Trump. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent the Beaver County SWAT information.
The insider said, “Several members of the surveillance teams were also using their phones to text and browse when the gunfire started, while the members of the counter-assault and counter-sniper teams were at their posts performing their duties. A subpoena for such phone data would reveal who was neglecting their duties.
According to the earlier source, before the shooting, counter-snipers had Crooks in their sights, but they needed to “deconflict” over the radio to ensure they weren’t shooting at a police officer.
“There was supposed to be a counter-sniper team on that roof, so the police counter-snipers saw him and had him in their scopes, but wanted to deconflict before they shot,” the insider claimed. “Once the event began, the pre-briefing and entire strategy went awry. So before the assassin arrived, everything was a complete mess.”
