A House task force report raked the Secret Service over the coals for what it called “stunning security failures” at the July 13 rally in which former President Donald Trump was shot.
Trump was wounded in the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally after being hit by one of the eight shots fired by Thomas Matthew Crooks. Two other people were wounded, and one man at the rally was killed.
According to the preliminary report, “The information obtained during the first phase of the Task Force’s investigation clearly shows a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the rally.”
‘TRAGIC AND SHOCKING’: Explosive report shatters the Secret Service narrative on the Trump assassination attempt. More details from the bombshell findings. https://t.co/IZnZHYuwba pic.twitter.com/QY7f3A2R74
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“The Task Force has obtained information from an array of sources,” the report said. The bipartisan task force consists of seven Republicans and six Democrats.
The Secret Service, identified in the report as USSS, “did not give clear guidance to the relevant state and local agencies about managing areas outside the secure event perimeter, and there was no joint meeting on the day of the rally between USSS and all state and local law enforcement agencies assisting USSS.”
“The information obtained by the Task Force also shows areas outside the secure perimeter were recognized as security risks,” the report said, noting that nothing was done to prevent access to the American Glass Research building Crooks used.
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The report said, even after the event, there was “disagreement and confusion among the entities involved in planning for the July 13 event as to who was responsible for ensuring the AGR complex was secure.”
The report cited Drew Blasko, a patrolman with the Butler Township Police Department, as having told the Secret Service on July 11 that “his team did not have the manpower to post officers around the AGR property, and that he asked the Secret Service for additional officers to be posted there. According to Patrolman Blasko, the Secret Service said, ‘They would take care of it.’”
‘Lawmakers in their report focus on “the fragmented lines of communication and unclear chains of command” between Secret Service and Pennsylvania state and local police but place the majority of the blame on the Secret Service for the security breakdown. https://t.co/D8pgXHXVXT
— @bohemianglytz #independent (@bohemianglytz) October 21, 2024
The report said Crooks capitalized on security failures, saying “as Crooks’ behavior became increasingly suspicious, fragmented lines of communication allowed Crooks to evade law enforcement …”
“Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened,” the report said.
The report noted that local law enforcement played a significant role in spotting Crooks.
“Moments before Crooks fired, a local law enforcement officer radioed that Crooks was on the roof with a gun. There is no evidence, to date, that this information reached the former President’s detail, and he remained on stage,” the report said.
Although a Secret Service sniper killed Crooks, the report said local law enforcement managed a shot at him, “which may have caused Crooks to stop firing.”
The report is not the first to criticize the Secret Service.
According to The Hill, last week, an independent review said that day’s failures “reveal deep flaws” in the Secret Service and called for new leadership to be brought in from outside of the agency.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month said Secret Service agents had several chances to stop Crooks.
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