New DHS Report Concludes That Secret Service Knew Thomas Crooks Was on a Rooftop Two Minutes Before He Nearly Killed Trump

Original article here

A newly released Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General report concluded that the U.S. Secret Service missed multiple opportunities to prevent the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.

According to the report, Secret Service personnel were informed that gunman Thomas Crooks had climbed onto a rooftop with a rifle approximately two minutes before he opened fire but failed to relay the information to Trump’s protective detail.

The report states that local law enforcement notified the Secret Service of a suspicious individual on the roof at approximately 6:09 p.m. Crooks fired eight shots at Trump at approximately 6:11 p.m.

Trump was struck in the ear during the attack, while one rally attendee was killed and two others were seriously wounded before Crooks was fatally shot by law enforcement.

“The Secret Service’s overall lack of policy and processes coupled with limited intelligence sharing and poor collaboration and communication with protectee staff and state and local law enforcement set the conditions that led to missing opportunities to prevent and detect the attempted assassination,” the inspector general’s report concluded.

The investigation was based on 92 interviews, more than 70,000 documents and a three-dimensional reconstruction of the rally site used to analyze the movements of Crooks, law enforcement officers and Secret Service personnel before and during the shooting.

Investigators found that Crooks flew a drone over the rally site before the attack without being detected.

According to the report, Secret Service personnel failed to identify the drone flight due in part to an operator who had received only about 20 minutes of informal training and because an ethernet cable needed to operate detection equipment remained inoperable until roughly 30 minutes after the drone had already flown over the venue.

The report also found communication failures between federal and local authorities.

Investigators determined the Secret Service never received 102 radio transmissions broadcast by local law enforcement officers in the minutes leading up to the attack because the agencies were operating on separate communication systems.

Instead, Secret Service personnel received only five phone calls and three text messages regarding the suspicious individual.

According to the report, agents also never received three critical radio transmissions indicating the suspect was carrying a long gun.

Investigators concluded that the limited information reaching Secret Service personnel failed to create sufficient urgency for officers protecting Trump to be warned of the imminent threat.

The report also revealed that Trump’s campaign staff declined a proposal to position trucks in a way that would have partially blocked the shooter’s line of sight because the vehicles would interfere with camera angles for media coverage, per the Daily Mail.

Investigators cited additional shortcomings, including inadequate coordination with local law enforcement, poor intelligence sharing with the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh Field Office and the absence of formal communication procedures during the event.

The Office of Inspector General issued seven recommendations aimed at improving planning, communications, intelligence sharing and operational procedures for future protective events.