A call this week between lawmakers and the directors of the Secret Service and the FBI did little to quell growing questions about what law enforcement officials did or did not do in allowing the assassination attempt on former President Trump to go ahead.
The new revelation that Trump was allowed on stage despite the Secret Service flagging the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, as a “suspicious person” and possible threat more than an hour before Saturday’s shooting has led to harsh criticism of the Secret Service.
For now, there are more questions than answers, and Republicans are stepping up their calls for the firing of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
Cheatle has so far refused to resign, with the department insisting that “continuity of operations during a significant incident is paramount” in a statement released late Wednesday.
Here are four revelations:
Almost an hour between a “person of interest” and a “threat”
One of the most shocking discoveries this week was that police had identified Crooks as a person of interest at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, 62 minutes before the gunman fired several shots at Trump.
Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh, drove about 35 miles north to the Trump rally with an AR-type weapon, climbed onto a building just outside the rally and fired several shots at Trump, one of which grazed Trump’s ear, shot one spectator and wounded two others.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a 30-minute conference call with senators on Wednesday that Crooks had scouted the rally site on July 7 and had also been there the morning of the rally.
Crooks later returned and was monitored by authorities at approximately 5:10 p.m., but at 5:30 p.m. police spotted the suspect on a rangefinder and sent a radio alert to the command post.
Local police and Secret Service agents attempted to locate Crooks but were not found until approximately 5:52 p.m., when a Secret Service counter-sniper on a roof adjacent to the stage spotted Crooks on the roof.
Ten minutes later, Trump took the stage and spoke for several minutes, after which, at about 6:09 p.m., members of the crowd noticed Crooks crawling on the roof and began trying to call police to report there was an active shooter, according to multiple videos posted on social media.
Crooks fired the first shot two minutes later, at 6:11 p.m. Secret Service agents located the suspect and returned fire less than 30 seconds later, killing him.
Trump allowed to go on stage 10 minutes after manhunt for shooter began
Lawmakers are particularly unhappy about why Trump was allowed on stage at the rally even though police had noted suspicious people in the area.
In shocking scenes on Wednesday, a group of Republican senators, including Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming (the No. 3 Republican), Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, cornered the director of the Secret Service on the floor of the Republican National Convention, loudly criticizing him for refusing to answer questions about the assassination attempt, according to videos posted on social media.
Cramer later told CNN that he and other lawmakers specifically wanted to know why Trump was allowed on stage after a potential threat was discovered at the rally.
The Secret Service has yet to reveal its thinking or decision-making process as to why the rally was allowed to take place.
“The shooter was identified as a suspect, a suspicious individual, and had a rangefinder and a backpack, about an hour before the shooting, and then he was lost and there was no follow-up after that,” Barrasso said in an interview with NBC News Now. “This happened about an hour ago.”
There is no one on the roof / Local authorities say the building cannot be made safe
Though Crooks was arrested in the area, questions still swirl about why officers were not sent to the roof of the building where the gunman climbed before the rally began.
Cheatle said earlier this week that the original plans did not include security guards on the building’s roof due to its “sloping” nature, citing safety risks. Instead, “the decision was made to secure the building from the inside.”
Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said local police had told the Secret Service they were “insufficiently staffed” to fully secure the building, including having patrol cars stationed outside it.
Local police instead positioned three snipers inside the building, one of whom spotted Crooks and took a photograph of him scoping out the building.
Butler County Executive Tom Knights said the threats then became more specific, so the officer tried to get onto the roof with the help of a colleague, who then tried to lift the officer off the roof.
Knights said officers scaled the side of the building to get a better look at Crooks, but he pointed a rifle at them.
“The assailant actually turned towards the officers and pointed his weapon at them. The officers assumed a defensive position to cover themselves. He lost his grip on the roof and fell approximately eight feet to the ground, sustaining injuries. However, both officers involved in the attempt both radioed in to say that, indeed, there was someone on the roof and that he was armed,” Knights said.ABC Pittsburgh.
But minutes later, “the individual began firing shots,” Knights said in a separate statement.
The motive has yet to be revealed.
Five days after Crooks plotted to kill President Trump, federal investigators do not appear to be able to determine his motive.
Briefing the House and Senate by phone on Wednesday, Cheatle, Wray and Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate told lawmakers they still had no clear reason for Crooks to climb onto the roof and shoot the presidential candidate, lawmakers said.
Authorities now know that Crooks, who purchased a box of ammunition at Walmart on July 5, two days after the rally was announced, had photos of President Trump and President Biden on one of his phones. ABC News.
Lawmakers also told CNN that the phone contained photos of congressional leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), as well as Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was involved in the overturning of the 2020 presidential election, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is currently prosecuting Trump and Giuliani.
As previously reported by The Hill, the reporters noted that Crooks used an encrypted communications platform that has not yet been able to be penetrated.
The shooter’s home was also a dead end for political or ideological information about Crooks, and Abbate reportedly told lawmakers at a briefing that the FBI found no such evidence there.
Fox News reported that senators were told another cell phone found at Crooks’ home had only 27 contacts and that FBI agents were investigating and attempting to question him.
Meanwhile, according to multiple reports, officials told lawmakers that search history on Trump’s laptop included searches about the Democratic National Convention schedule, Trump’s upcoming events and depression.
Investigators are searching for more clues about what Crooks, a Republican who donated to progressive campaigns in 2021, was doing in the weeks, days and hours leading up to the assassination attempt, but digital and physical evidence is frustratingly limited, and no one has ever reported discussing politics with Crooks.
