Secret Service never used local police radios furnished for Trump rally coordination, senator says

Local law enforcement provided radios to the U.S. Secret Service for cross-agency coordination during the July 13 Donald J. Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but the Secret Service never used them, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said July 28.

Johnson also disclosed that counter-sniper teams “acquired” would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks in their rifle scopes only after Crooks fired on former President Trump at 6:11 p.m.

“We also have it confirmed that the radios that local law enforcement gave the Secret Service sniper teams were never used by the Secret Service,” Johnson said on "Fox News Sunday."

The communications problems before and during Trump’s appearance at the Butler Farm Show Inc. fairgrounds had fatal consequences, Johnson said.

“So again, all of the communication was channeled,” Johnson said. “The sniper and the SWAT teams were on different communications channels than the patrol officers, different communications channels from Secret Service, all funneled in through a central communications system, which obviously delayed things and allowed this tragedy to happen.”

'We had no communication with the Secret Service.'

Johnson, the ranking member on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said counter-snipers did not acquire Crooks as a target until after he opened fire on Trump and the rally crowd just after 6:11 p.m.

"They acquired him after the shots were fired," Johnson said. "But again, we need detailed interviews with those individuals to find out exactly what happened. It’s unbelievable how little information has been coming from federal law enforcement.”

During the early part of Trump's rally speech on July 13, a bullet cut a hole in his right ear from an AR-15 rifle shot by Crooks from approximately 130 yards north of the stage. Crooks got off seven more shots — killing retired Pennsylvania fire chief Corey Comperatore and seriously wounding two other men — before he was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.

The biggest security failure in Secret Service history has launched at least seven congressional and law-enforcement investigations and led to the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.

Johnson said photographs taken of Crooks by a counter-sniper near the American Glass Research Building 6 at 5:14 p.m. were received by the Secret Service well before the shooting. The counter-sniper who took the photos first noticed Crooks at 5:10 p.m., according to a preliminary shooting timeline released by Johnson's office.

The event command center, which included Secret Service officers, acknowledged receipt of the photos of Crooks at 5:55 p.m., 16 minutes before Crooks fired the first shot, the timeline document stated.

A local police sniper took photos of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks at a retaining wall of the building he used as a perch to shoot former President Donald J. Trump on July 13. Photos via U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released text messages between a local counter-sniper and his colleagues, given to Grassley by the counter-sniper, indicating that police were aware of Crooks' presence as a suspicious person at 4:26 p.m., some 44 minutes earlier than originally reported.

First published in the New York Times July 28, the texts from a counter-sniper leaving after his duty shift indicated that he saw Crooks sitting at a picnic table. The officer said Crooks saw him come out of the two-story building just behind Building 6 where Crooks later launched his rifle assault, a text said.

"He knows you guys are up there," one text read.

Investigators from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations have gotten most of their information so far from local law enforcement, Johnson said. The subcommittee contacted seven local and state law enforcement agencies asking for materials related to the assassination attempt.

“We want a detailed timeline," Johnson said. "We need all of their communications, both the written emails, texts, but also we need voice recordings of any verbal communications."

A July 30 joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from Secret Service Acting Director Ronald L. Rowe Jr. and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. The hearing will be chaired by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Rowe will have his work cut out for him. “He has an awful lot to explain," Johnson said.

There was virtually no coordination between the Secret Service and local law enforcement on July 13, according to a source with direct knowledge of the rally timeline who spoke to Blaze News on the condition of anonymity. Some Secret Service operators were distracted during the key minutes leading up to the shooting, the source said.

“They did not have briefings, rehearsals, or contingency discussions. No all-hands-on-deck briefings," the source said.

Two SWAT officers look down at the body of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks just before 7 p.m. July 13. The Butler, Pa., rally location that Crooks shot into with a rifle, striking former President Donald J. Trump, is seen in the background. Beaver County Emergency Services Unit SWAT via Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

“Also, many of the surveillance teams were on their phones, texting and scrolling when the shots were fired, while guys from the counter-assault team and counter-sniper team standing post were doing their jobs," the source said. "If those phone records can be subpoenaed, you’ll be able to learn who wasn’t paying attention."

The source previously said counter-sniper teams had Crooks in their scopes before the shooting but had to "deconflict" via radio to make sure they were not firing on a police officer.

"The police counter-sniper team saw him, had him in their sights but wanted to deconflict before they fired because that roof was supposed to have a counter-sniper team on it," the source said. "The whole plan and the pre-briefing all got messed up once the event started. So it was a clusterf**k before that assassin showed up."

'That’s a shocking piece of information.'

Those types of communication problems were echoed by a Beaver County law enforcement officer who appeared on ABC News July 28.

“We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service snipers whenever they arrived, and that never happened," the unidentified officer said. "I think that that was probably a pivotal point where I started thinking things were wrong because that never happened. We had no communication with the Secret Service."

A whistleblower earlier reported to U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that the Building 6 roof was supposed to have a police officer on it.

“There was supposed to be a law-enforcement presence on the roof that day,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “In fact, the whistleblower alleges that at least one individual was specifically assigned to the roof for the duration of the rally, but this person abandoned his or her post due to the hot weather.”

Johnson said he also intends to make sure Rowe answers an allegation from former Secret Service agent and now radio and podcast host Dan Bongino, who reported that the Secret Service was not sending counter-snipers to Trump events unless the location was within driving distance of Washington, D.C.

“That is a stunning piece of information, that counter-snipers were not being sent to Donald Trump events if it wasn’t drivable from Washington, D.C.," Bongino said on the July 26 episode of "The Dan Bongino Show." "That’s a shocking piece of information.”

'Crooks was a left-wing partisan who hated President Trump’s immigration policies.'

Bongino was critical of Sen. Johnson for praising the acting Secret Service director after Rowe gave a closed-door briefing to senators on July 25. Bongino said Rowe was one of the Secret Service officials involved in denying Trump campaign requests for security upgrades at campaign events.

“This guy’s life is being put in danger because — what? You’re trying to save on airplane tickets?” Bongino said on his radio program.

While information on Crooks' possible motivation and personal politics has been sketchy, the CEO of the social network Gab disclosed an account that could have belonged to Crooks that expressed support for President Joe Biden on COVID-19 lockdowns and immigration at the southern border.

The account under the handle @epicMicrowave posted nine comments on Gab between Jan. 20 and Feb. 4, 2021. Gab CEO Andrew Torba disclosed the account 30 minutes after he said Gab received an "emergency disclosure request."

"Yesterday, in the process of responding to an emergency disclosure request from a U.S. law enforcement agency, Gab learned that a pro-Biden/Harris account on the site was believed to have belonged to Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to assassinate President Trump," Torba wrote July 25. "After backing up the account, we notified the public."

"Gab.com has published the first evidence making it very apparent that Crooks was a left-wing partisan who hated President Trump’s immigration policies — noting that the shooter fired on President Trump when he started talking about those same policies," Torba wrote. "This raises the possibility, for the first time, that his attempted assassination of President Trump was the latest instance of a wider pattern of left-wing domestic terrorism that has plagued our country since the summer of 2020."

Torba said while Gab has been "unable to confirm that the account in question actually belonged to him," the company has "saved the account data pending receipt of a search warrant."

After sharing the possible Crooks account information, Torba said July 26 that Gab's credit-card processing system "came under attack by the Regime 48 hours after we broke this story. We are in danger of losing our ability to process online payments, again. Please pray that we are able to sort it out."

Torba had not shared an update on the situation as of early July 29.

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