The bipartisan House Task Force investigating the failings of the United States Secret Service (USSS) regarding the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump released its interim report.
It’s not good.
“Indeed, federal, state, and local law enforcement officers could have engaged Thomas Matthew Crooks at several pivotal moments,” wrote the members. “Throughout the afternoon, as Crooks’s behavior became increasingly suspicious, fragmented lines of communication allowed Crooks to evade law enforcement and, eventually, climb on the roof of the AGR complex and fire at the rally stage and crowd, killy a rally attendee and injuring three others, including former President Trump.”
A USSS agent neutralized Crooks while local law enforcement officers also fired at Crooks.
A gunshot to the head killed crooks.
“Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened,” added the committee.
The committee found eight critical failings:
The communication failure stunk, but I just cannot get over the fact that no one secured the AGR complex.
It turns out Drew Blasko, a patrolman with the Butler Township Police Department and an assistant team leader with the Butler ESU sniper team, told the committee he relayed his concerns about the AGR complex to the USSS.
Blasko told the USSS that he “did not have the manpower to post officers around the AGR property, and asked the Secret Service for additional officers to be posted there.”
The USSS told Blasko the agency would handle it.
But USSS Acting Director Rowe claimed the agents believed the local police would secure the AGR complex.
Edward Lenz, Commander of the Butler ESU, also told the committee that the USSS never gave his team guidance on how to use its assets.
Local and state law enforcement had eyes on Crooks for 40 minutes before word reached the USSS.
Gee, maybe they should have established a communications line with the local folks.
One witness said they observed Crooks “looking up at my sniper elements or what I believed he believed was our sniper elements, because there was open windows — well, as much as they should open — and then, again, would kind of come and go.”
Crooks raised red flags with the witness because he seemed to have “zero interest in anything that was happening inside the fence.”
Another witness said:
What I observed Crooks doing was – to me he looked he stood out. He was walking around the grassy area between AGR and the secondary fence line, kept looking up, looking at the building. One point that is what raised my suspicion is he was looking directly at the window and underneath of it against the building to the point where I couldn’t see him. That made me feel as though he was looking or could – was potentially looking at the window to see if there was somebody inside the building. And when he went up against the building to where I couldn’t look down on him, I found that to be very suspicious.
“To date, the Task Force has not received any evidence to suggest that message reached the former President’s USSS detail prior to shots fired,” wrote the committee.
Sheesh.
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