Trump attack trial reveals colossal failure in Secret Service security
8 Min Read
When asked why Trump was allowed to walk the stage, acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe responded that Crooks had been labeled suspicious rather than a threat.
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US Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe testifies during a Senate Judiciary hearing on the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Washington. (AP)
The acting director of the Secret Service stated on Tuesday that until the gunman started fire on the former President, neither Donald Trump's security detail nor a sniper team knew there was a gunman on a roof.
According to FBI officials, local law enforcement had designated gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks as a "suspicious person" approximately 90 minutes prior to the July 13 attack at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The acting Secret Service chief, Ronald Rowe, told a joint Senate committee, "Based on what I know right now, neither the Secret Service counter-sniper teams nor members of the former president's security detail had any knowledge that there was a man on the AGR roof with a firearm."
"The only thing we had was that locals were working an issue at the three o'clock, which would have been the former president's right-hand side, which is where the shots came from," Rowe added.
"Nothing about man on the roof, nothing about man with a gun," he stressed.
At 6:11 pm, according to FBI special agent Kevin Rojek, a cop was hoisted onto the roof by another officer. With his rifle aimed at the officer, Crooks "immediately dropped to the ground."
"Approximately 25 to 30 seconds after this encounter, the subject fired eight rounds before being successfully neutralized," Rojek said.
According to Rowe, Crooks was fatally shot "within 15.5 seconds" of the initial fire by a Secret Service sniper.
Rowe claimed he was "ashamed" about the security failings and that he "cannot defend" why the rooftop from which Crooks fired was not adequately secured.
Read more: DHS chides attack on female Secret Service agents after Trump incident
He said the rooftop had been secured by local law police. "We assumed that the state and locals had it," he stated.
When asked why Trump was allowed to walk the stage, Rowe responded that Crooks had been labeled suspicious rather than a threat.
Rowe continued to state, "We did not have anything beyond suspicious person that was communicated to us," adding, "Suspicion had not risen to the level of threat or imminent harm."
Rowe described the incident as a "failure on multiple levels," citing failures in coordination between the Secret Service and local law enforcement.
On the day of the attack, the Secret Service experienced "technical difficulties" with its counter-drone capabilities, and they weren't "operational until after five o'clock," he claimed.
The FBI claims that approximately two hours prior to the attack, Crooks flew a drone close to the rally site for 11 minutes.
In his remarks to the committee, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told the committee that the authorities have yet to determine a motive and that they have located a social media profile that they think belongs to Crooks.
During his testimony, Abbate said, "In about the 2019, 2020 timeframe there were over 700 comments posted from this account."
He added, "Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes, to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature."
Scandals and texts
Text messages between members of Beaver County emergency services in Pennsylvania reveal how understaffed they were before the Trump rally earlier this month, during which several unnamed people discussed their lack of available workers.
One leader claimed that his staff was too busy to cover the rally, saying in texts obtained by Fox News Digital from Sen. Chuck Grassley's office (R-Iowa) that "everyone else is either working, on vacation or hurt."
Just a few days prior to the rally, the team leaders of the Beaver County emergency services unit were asked via text message to help Butler County with security for the Trump event. On July 8, team leaders received a message asking who would be available to assist with the July 13 event.
One text read, "It is probably going to be a 12 [hour] detail. Right now I am looking for 6 guys available. If absolutely needed we can split the shift."
Someone once suggested that they may notify Butler County, the site of Trump's rally, that Beaver County emergency services might need to be "on call".
Still, the area snipers were covering did not include Crooks' location atop an AGR International warehouse. Beaver County's after-action report, which confirmed their sniper's location close to Crooks', provides specifics on his placement.
The records that Grassley gathered also showed the sightings of Crooks and the observations of his actions preceding that night's shooting.
Snipers said that Crooks was seated at a nearby picnic table approximately an hour prior to the attempted murder.
A text to a group chat of multi-county snipers said at 5:38 pm, "I did see him with a range finder looking towards the stage... If you wanna notify [Secret Service] snipers to look out. I lost sight of him."
The texter also mentioned that a bike and a backpack had been seen in the back of the building.
The local officers helping out at the event were clueless about Crooks' whereabouts just minutes before he opened fire.
When asked what direction Crooks went, one person replied, "Not sure" and said, "He was up against the building," at 6:00 pm. "If I had to guess towards the back. Away from the event."
After five minutes, word came over the radio that the suspect was near the picnic tables, heading toward Sheetz while carrying a backpack. An individual, whose name is withheld in the after-action report, made an attempt to inform patrol police of Crooks' position near the building on the side of the fairground between 6:06 and 6:12.
However, shots were fired at 6:12 pm.
It failed from the start
FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Wednesday that Crooks had conducted extensive research on the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy prior to the attack.
Wray said while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee that an examination of Crooks' personal computer showed he started investigating the JFK assassination on July 6, the same day he registered for the Trump rally.
"He did a Google search for – quote – 'how far away was Oswald from Kennedy'," Wray said, referencing Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK's assassin.
Wray emphasized that this search was significant in understanding Crooks' mindset, noting his intense focus on Trump and the rally. However, Wray provided little insight into Crooks' broader motivations, stating that the shooter had no known accomplices or co-conspirators and did not speculate on his political beliefs.
Moreover, it was found that prior to fixating on Trump, Crooks had conducted numerous searches on public figures.
US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday after the organization came under heavy criticism for failing to stop a would-be assassin from injuring Trump during a campaign event with the intent of killing him.
When she stood before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Monday, she was met with criticism from both political parties and refused to address inquiries from irate members regarding the security arrangements for the event and the way in which law enforcement handled the gunman's suspicious actions.
Taking full responsibility for the incident, Cheatle told legislators that it was the biggest mistake made by the Secret Service since then-President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. Cheatle had been in charge of the agency since 2022.
She admitted in her opening statement that the Secret Service had "failed" on July 13, when the former President's shooter was able to take a clear shot from a rooftop near the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
