Secret Service Explanations For Security Failures Not Adding Up; DHS Inspector General Launches Investigation

In the wake of Saturday’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the #1 question is how the Secret Service could have failed to secure a rooftop a little over 400ft away – which former Army sniper Rep. Cory Mills called a “sniper’s paradise” that was so obvious he wondered aloud whether it was an “intentional” failure.

FBI employee hoses off dangerously-sloped roof

And in typical government fashion, their excuses aren’t adding up.

Sloped roof?

According to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle – who has rejected calls to resign, there was no agent placed on the building because it had a “sloped roof.”

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point, and so there’s a safety factor that would be considered there, that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said in a Tuesday interview with ABC News. “So, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from inside.”

“Should that roof have been secured?”

Director Kimberly Cheatle: “That building has a sloped roof. There’s a safety factor considered that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on the sloped roof.” pic.twitter.com/66eteneY4E

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 17, 2024

This is obviously absurd. For starters, the counter-snipers near Trump were perched on a roof with a steeper slope.

JUST IN: USSS director Kim Cheatle says sn*pers weren’t on the roof where Thomas Crooks shot from because it was “sloped” and unsafe.

Ironically, the sn*pers who were behind Trump during the rally were on a sloped roof.

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its… pic.twitter.com/Vg36tXr9rJ

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 16, 2024

Snipers had eyes-on the shooter before Trump went onstage:

Conspicuously absent from the Secret Service’s explanation are reports that a local PD sniper stationed on the second floor inside the building saw the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, outside the building and looking up at the roof. He then walked away, returned, whipped out his phone, when one of the snipers took the first of two pictures of him.

Crooks then took out a rangefinder – at which point the sniper radioed to a command post. Crooks then disappeared again and came back a third time with a backpack. The snipers called in once again with information that he had a backpack and that he (Crooks) was walking toward the back of the building.

By the time other officers came for backup, he had climbed on top of the building and was positioned above and behind the snipers inside the building, the officer said.

Two other officers who heard the sniper’s call tried to get onto the roof. State police started rushing to the scene, but by that time, a Secret Service sniper had already killed Crooks, the officer said. –CBS News

So – law enforcement had eyes-on the shooter the entire time, took pictures of him, notified their command post – and nothing was done until Crooks shot Trump, at which point Secret Service snipers returned fire and killed him.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi has said that local police officers radioed agents about a possible suspicious person before Mr. Trump came onstage. It’s unclear if the sniper teams were alerted. -NYT

What’s more, a Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told CNN that a Butler Township officer encountered Crooks on the roof of the building before the shooting, but retreated down a ladder after Crooks pointed his gun at him. According to Slupe, there was a security failure, but said “there is not just one entity responsible.”

Three hours?

BOMBSHELL.🚨

Trump’s Would-Be Assassin on Secret Service Radar THREE HOURS Before Shooting President

Thomas Matthew Crooks, alleged shooter in the Trump assassination attempt, was on the Secret Service’s radar after he attempted to pass through a metal detector with a range… pic.twitter.com/rCfAbWsZrw

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 17, 2024

Further complicating matters is a NYT report citing a law enforcement official who said that the local PD forces were in an adjacent building, not the one the shooter was firing from.

Nothing from the Secret Service on this report – and not one mention of it in today’s breakdown in the Washington Post – which is now suggesting that the slope could have hindered counter-snipers’ view.

Illustration via the Washington Post

Meanwhile, while law enforcement has suggested that the Crooks used an air conditioning unit to climb onto the dangerously sloped roof, while questions are being asked about various ladders.

So here’s the situation … pic.twitter.com/uxpzEsna5v

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2024

Resources diverted?

According to RealClearPolitics, resources were diverted away from Trump’s rally to an event where First Lady Jill Biden was speaking. USSC spox Anthony Guglielmi denied this was the case.

Susan, this is very wrong. We did not divert resources from FPOTUS Trump & protection models don’t work that way. As far as “field office teams” these are the candidate nominee operations teams that are added during election years for the heavy travel tempo. https://t.co/ulf45qLAsO

— Anthony Guglielmi (@SecretSvcSpox) July 15, 2024

Blame Game:

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the Secret Service blamed local law enforcement for failing to secure the building, and vice-versa.

“There was local police in that building – there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building,” Cheatle said during her interview with ABC News.

Yet – according to Butler County DA Richard Goldlinger, the “Secret Service was in charge,” and that “it was their responsibility to make sure that the venue and the surrounding area was secure.”

“For them to blame local law enforcement is them passing the blame when they hold the blame, in my opinion,” he told the Washington Post on Tuesday.

One former Secret Service agent told CNN: “The Service is responsible for everything, not just the inner perimeter. They should make sure all of this is covered.“

Former secret service agent Jeffrey James told the Daily Caller that protection “works in a series of concentric circles,” in which there is an inner circle of secret service agents, a second circle that’s a mix of both agents and local law enforcement, and an outer ring that is largely state and local partners.

If the agent in charge of the site told a local law enforcement officer on the outer perimeter that the building is his responsibility, then anything that happens is on the officer.

“But if that agent didn’t find one of the local law enforcement partners and give very clear, direct directions…then it’s going to be the responsibility or the fault of that agent for not delegating that,” he told the DCNF.

It’s unclear what instructions the Secret Service gave to local law enforcement. -Daily Caller

“Whatever happened in Butler, this was not a failure of the local, state or federal officers on the ground who responded to the shots fired at former President Trump. They acted heroically and put their lives on the line to protect everyone at the event and we must recognize that,” said Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. “This is a failure at the management or command level who failed to secure an obvious weakness in the security of this event.“

“Why was President Trump even on stage at that point? He should have not been on stage.”

NEW: @Dbongino breaks news the Secret Service had the suspect on its radar “but lost track of him, apparently, and he was hiding in a building about 300 yards away.”pic.twitter.com/FZ3YUBWUPb

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 15, 2024

Good news: the government is investigating itself again!

While House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) is set to investigate the incident – with a vow to subpoena Cheatle, and both the Oversight Panel and the Homeland Security Committees are trying to schedule briefings, and Rep. Cory Mills wants to launch a ‘J13 Committee’ to investigate the assassination attempt – the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched its own internal investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of the rally.

A new bulletin listed under “ongoing projects” on the DHS Office of Inspector General website said the project objective is to “evaluate the United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event.” –ABC News

We’re sure the government will do a great job investigating itself.