A damning internal investigation has found that Secret Service agents failed to ensure that proper security measures were in place that would have prevented would-be assassins from seeing former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Officials said officials from Secret Service headquarters and the Pittsburgh field office discussed the possibility of using cranes, trucks and flags to block the view from the AGR International building, where the would-be assassin began his fire, to the stage where the president was shot. He told The Washington Post.
According to the report, Secret Service supervisors who were on the scene on July 13 found heavy equipment and flags set up in an area of the Butler Farm Show grounds that did not block views between the AGR building and the stage, officials said. The results of the investigation could be released next week.
An internal investigation ordered by Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe also found that the agency never instructed local police to guard the rooftop where 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate Trump.
Crooks took up position on the roof of a building about 130 yards from the rally's stage and, in broad daylight, fired eight shots, killing one rally attendee, wounding two and shooting Trump in the ear.
The assailant was subsequently shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
Immediately after the shooting, the Secret Service maintained that security and patrols of the AGR International factory grounds outside the rally site were the responsibility of local police.
The internal investigation also detailed a stunning breakdown in communication between federal and local authorities, according to The Washington Post.
The radio room that Secret Service agents used to respond to external threats was unable to receive real-time alerts from local police stationed outside.
Crooks was reportedly spotted by police using a rangefinder and looking at his phone about an hour before Trump was due to take the stage.
An internal investigation found that Secret Service agents did not hear local police radio messages saying they were trying to track down and locate Crooks after Trump began speaking.
Agents at the scene received a message stating that Crooks was a “threat” just 10 minutes before Trump was to speak.
Acting Secretary of State for Security, Rowe, acknowledged to The Washington Post that the agency must take responsibility for security failings identified in the report.
He also said he had launched a new review to beef up security for dozens of government employees protected by the Secret Service.
Senator Rowe briefed members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday on the report, saying senators from both parties were “appalled” by the security failings at Trump's rallies.
“I believe the American people will be shocked, surprised and appalled by what we will report about the Secret Service's failures during the assassination attempt on a former president,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
