The U.S. Secret Service communications outage on Jan. 6, 2021, still documented in a secret inspector general report, may be directly linked to mistakes made on July 13 leading up to the assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump, congressional officials told The Blaze News.
Jan. 6 report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General Joseph V. Khufari It was submitted for review in April but is currently being held by the office of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a senior congressional aide told The Blaze News on condition of anonymity. The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
“They don’t want it to be public. They don’t want it to be public. They don’t like the conclusion,” the source said. “That was the other day. [shooting] happened.”
The Office of Inspector General’s report on Jan. 6 was reviewed by Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle before being sent to Mayorkas, according to sources. The Office of Inspector General’s investigation into Jan. 6 has been ongoing for more than three years.
“The January 6th report we’ve been waiting for from the inspector general contains a series of recommendations,” the source said. “It’s about the Secret Service’s failures on January 6th. One of the recommendations relates directly to what happened on Saturday.”
The source had not read a copy of the Jan. 6 OIG report but had been briefed on its contents by an official familiar with its preparation. The link between the report and the July 13 communications outage is one possible cause.
Another senior congressional staffer said communication issues may be what links the OIG report on Jan. 6 to the tragedy at the Trump rally at the Butler Farm Show Inc. fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I believe the recommendation to link J6 and J13 is down to an inexplicably disjointed and inefficient communications structure between the USSS and other agencies,” the source told The Blaze News on condition of anonymity.
The Blaze News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security OIG and Secretary Mayorkas’ office for comment but had not heard back as of press time.
Mr. Kuffari has three offices. investigation According to the OIG website, the reports on the assassination attempt included one on the preparation of counter-sniper teams, two on the security process for the Trump base and one determining the extent to which the agency’s operations “ensure the safety and security of designated protected persons.”
“Our Secret Service sniper ended the assassin’s life with just one bullet from a great distance.”
Shortly after 6:11 p.m. on July 13, suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on former President Trump with an AR-15 rifle, striking him in the right ear, as Secret Service agents desperately tried to cover Trump and remove him from the stage.
Crooks climbed to the roof of Building 6 at the American Glass Research manufacturing facility just north of the fairgrounds. A witness near the building saw Crooks crawling onto the roof with a rifle, but that information did not appear to reach Secret Service agents who were guarding Trump during his abbreviated speech.
Crooks fired shots at the podium and surrounding area. Corey Comperatore, 50, a former volunteer fire chief from Thurber, Pennsylvania, died while trying to protect his family from the gunfire. Two other people at the rally were seriously wounded in Crooks’ hail of bullets.
Among the key questions still unanswered by the OIG, FBI, and congressional committees investigating the assassination attempt is why Crooks was not stopped when he was near the scene and drew attention for more than three hours. Cell phone video posted to social media shows passersby near the AGR facility yelling at police as Crooks scales the slightly sloping roof.
Trump’s sudden turn of the head while referring to a large infographic for the crowd ultimately saved his life: a rifle bullet aimed at the center of his head instead grazed his right ear.
Seconds after Crooks fired at Trump and the crowd, a police sniper about 450 yards away opened fire, hitting the young man. Sources told The Blaze News that Crooks suffered at least three gunshot wounds. It is not yet known which sniper’s bullet struck Crooks in the head, killing him.
President Trump mentioned the sniper team’s activities during his inaugural address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18. His comments confirmed an exclusive report by The Blaze News the previous day.
“The communication situation was terrible that day.”
“And then everything stopped,” Trump said after recounting the terror of the shooting. “Our Secret Service sniper, from a great distance, ended the assassin’s life with just one bullet.”
Communications is a major problem, said two elite experts who frequently fly security missions around the world and train snipers and other agents for the Secret Service and other agencies.
According to sources, police and Secret Service radios were not on a common channel on July 13. “Communication was horrible that day,” one person said.
At least one sniper unit was aiming at Crooks, but the group went into “conflict avoidance mode” as they assumed police would be guarding the roof where Crooks was holding his rifle, the source said.
According to sources, an anti-sniper team was supposed to be stationed on the roof of Building 6 during the incident, but for unknown reasons, there was no one guarding the building.
The ultimate outcome of this hesitation, the sources said, is more likely a result of a “friend or foe” collision avoidance effort, rather than any ill intent.
Local police found Crooks at about 5:30pm crawling up a retaining wall on one side of Building 6. Officers took photos of Crooks from a mast camera, a drone and a helicopter which were distributed to officers on the ground.
Questions have been raised about the Secret Service’s actions before, during and after a pipe bomb was discovered on Jan. 6 at the Democratic National Committee headquarters near the U.S. Capitol.
The FBI says the bomber placed the bomb next to a bench along the Democratic National Committee building the night before January 6. The pipe bomb was not discovered by Capitol Police observers until 1:05 p.m.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arrived at the Democratic National Convention at 11:30 a.m. on January 6. Her motorcade arrived more than 90 minutes later at a garage entrance just a few feet from where the pipe bomb was discovered.
Security video released by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) showed Secret Service agents and police officers standing in the driveway of the building talking minutes after the bomb was discovered, and they finished their lunch before the officers emerged in two cars parked in the driveway, Massie reported.
Questions have been raised about whether the Secret Service properly searched the premises with bomb-sniffing dogs before Harris arrived. Earlier that day, security camera footage showed officers spotting what appeared to be a bomb-sniffing dog walking around the building, including near the bomb. The dog did not find the device.
The Secret Service deleted text messages from Jan. 5 and 6 from his phone as part of a “device replacement program,” Caffari said in letters to the House and Senate Homeland Security committees. The deletions came after Caffari’s office requested electronic communications from the Secret Service from Jan. 6.
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