Two words describe the security situation at the Trump
rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13: hot mess. There are so many
glaring flaws, and the ground is so inexcusable that it is fertile for
conspiracy theorists. Can you blame them? The Secret Service is
stonewalling and stacking sandbags amid intense scrutiny from lawmakers
from both parties.
We don’t know if would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was a lone
gunman. How many casings were recovered from the roof? We don’t know.
What we do know is that no one at the Secret Service has been
disciplined for this calamity, and now text messages obtained by The New York Times
show that snipers knew about Crooks earlier than initially reported. It
provides yet another damning update on the assassination attempt that
nearly killed a former president. Crooks missed delivering a fatal
headshot by millimeters [emphasis mine]:
BREAKING:
Leaked messages between countersn*pers reveal they were aware of Thomas
Crooks about 90 minutes before Trump was nearly assas*inated.
One of the countersn*pers was reportedly leaving at the end of his shift when he noticed Crooks.
“Someone followed our lead and snuck… pic.twitter.com/bma8Pjfnye
Nearly
100 minutes before former President Donald J. Trump took the stage in
Butler, Pa., a local countersniper who was part of the broader security
detail let his colleagues know his shift was ending.
“Guys I am
out. Be safe,” he texted to a group of colleagues at 4:19 p.m. on July
13. He exited the second floor of a warehouse that overlooked the
campaign rally site, leaving two other countersnipers behind.
Outside,
the officer noticed a young man with long stringy hair sitting on a
picnic table near the warehouse. So at 4:26 p.m., he texted his
colleagues about the man, who was outside the fenced area of the Butler
Fair Show grounds where Mr. Trump was to appear. He said that the person
would have seen him come out with his rifle and “knows you guys are up
there.”
The countersniper who sent the texts confirmed to The New
York Times that the individual he saw was later identified as the
gunman.
By 5:10 p.m., the young man was no longer on the picnic
table. He was right below the countersnipers, who were upstairs in a
warehouse owned by AGR International. One of the countersnipers took
pictures of him, according to a law enforcement after-action report,
which along with the texts from the Beaver County Emergency Services
Unit was provided to The Times by the office of Senator Charles E.
Grassley, Republican of Iowa. The text messages were independently
verified by The Times.
At 5:38 p.m., the photos were shared in a
group chat, and another text went out among the officers, saying they
should inform the Secret Service. “Kid learning around building we are
in. AGR I believe it is. I did see him with a range finder looking
towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost
sight of him.”
[…]
Taken together, the text messages
provide the most detailed picture yet of the hours before the
assassination attempt. They reveal that the gunman, later identified as
Thomas Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., aroused police suspicion more
than 90 minutes before the shooting, rather than about 60 minutes, as
has been previously discussed in congressional hearings.
The
messages also add to the evidence that the would-be assassin was often
one step ahead of security forces, and in particular the Secret Service.
The lengthy article details Crooks’ activities that we know thus far,
including packages delivered to his home, where some materials were
used to build a couple of makeshift explosive devices. Two were
discovered in the van at the rally site, and another was found inside
the residence. He scoped the rally site before the Secret Service did
their walkthrough on July 8 and used a drone to conduct aerial
surveillance. The Secret Service opted not to deploy one during the
rally. The American Glass Research rooftop was excluded from the
agency’s “inner security perimeter.” Who was tasked with covering this
glaring security vulnerability remains to be verified. We know that no
personnel were on the rooftop less than 200 yards, with a clear line of
sight, to Mr. Trump on the rally stage.
There were reports that
Secret Service snipers had their sights on Crooks for two minutes before
he opened fire, but this timeline changes the narrative again. Local SWAT teams
told ABC News they had photos and details about Crooks, relaying the
information that apparently never got the attention required, a damning
indictment of the seemingly ramshackle communications system deployed
that day.
ABC NEWS: Trump rally SWAT team "found that there were no patrol officers around the area to try and intercept the suspect."
What is going on?!pic.twitter.com/XOCUeIrEkO
The
team took responsibility for the shooting, which injured Trump and left
one man, Corey Comperatore, dead, along with two others injured.
How local law enforcement was deployed is another puzzling piece
to this fiasco. Crooks was able to essentially roam at will; the only
police who encountered him were cops who left their duties directing
traffic:
Mr. Crooks did something that alarmed the police. They saw him using the range finder.
A
Beaver County countersniper shared two photos of Mr. Crooks with his
colleagues at 5:38 p.m., which were then relayed to the Secret Service,
through a series of steps in the command center.
One of the two
remaining countersnipers “ran out of the building attempting to keep
eyes on Crooks until other law enforcement arrived,” according to a
statement by Richard Goldinger, the Butler County district attorney, who
supervises some of the law enforcement units.
But Mr. Crooks ran
off, taking a backpack with him, Mr. Goldinger said. When the officer
was unable to find Mr. Crooks, he returned to his post.
Four Butler Township police officers who had been directing traffic joined the manhunt.
At
6 p.m., one officer in the group texts guessed that Mr. Crooks was
moving toward the back of the complex of AGR buildings, “away from the
event.” Instead, Mr. Crooks clambered onto the low-slung building in the
complex closest to the stage.
Mr. Trump took the podium at 6:03 p.m., to a roaring crowd.
Around
this time was also when onlookers noticed Crooks on the roof before
shots were fired. The Secret Service reportedly knew around this time,
ten minutes before he took the stage, that there was a threat against
Mr. Trump. They did nothing, not even telling the former president, who
said he would have waited until everything was okay.
There were mountains of questions about the security flaws at this rally. Now, there are more, with an agency being the very definition of uncooperative.
BREAKING: Bodycam footage from roof following attempted assassination of President Trump
Officer says Secret Service sniper took multiple photos of Thomas Crooks before the shooting. pic.twitter.com/E4dVx7SbwN
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