Before resigning on Tuesday, former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said at a congressional hearing the previous day that the agency was “still investigating” who was in charge of monitoring the building used by Trump’s gunman.
“What I can say is that there was a plan to do oversight, and we’re still working out the responsibility and who would do the oversight,” Cheatle told House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) on Monday.
Cheatle also told Rep. Byron Donald (R-Fla.) that “there were security cameras on that roof.”
When asked “Did monitoring fail?” she replied: “We are waiting for the results of the investigation so that we can identify where the failure occurred.”
She declined to reveal the name of the person responsible for the surveillance.
“I’m not going to reveal their names here,” she said.
Cheatle’s failure to respond infuriated Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who called for her to resign. She refused to consider resigning during the hearing, but did so the following morning.
The Secret Service is responsible for developing overall security plans for those it protects, but typically delegates certain areas to local police for campaign rallies and other remote events. The Secret Service confirmed that the building where suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks allegedly targeted former President Donald Trump was outside the Secret Service perimeter.
It’s not yet clear who was in charge of guarding the building used by the shooter, but the Beaver Countyian reported that the Butler County Emergency Services Unit (ESU), the equivalent of a SWAT team, had personnel stationed inside the building, including a police sniper.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released preliminary findings Sunday that suggest Butler County College of Education had not included its building in its security coverage.
But on Monday, after Cheatle’s testimony, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) said he had been told by the whistleblower that officers had been on the roof that day but “abandoned due to the heat,” and that officers were supposed to be patrolling the building but chose to remain inside.
NEW YORK – A whistleblower said police officers were stationed on the roof on the day of the Trump rally but abandoned them due to the heat, and that police were supposed to patrol the building but instead chose to remain inside. pic.twitter.com/aIVNSPHUF6
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 22, 2024
A former Secret Service agent told Breitbart News that if local police were to be stationed in the building, they would be responsible for securing the entire building, including the roof.
According to Johnson’s preliminary findings, a Butler County ESU sniper spotted Crooks inside the building at 5:10 p.m. and took a photograph at 5:14 p.m. He said Crooks was unarmed but appeared “suspicious.” The sniper took at least two photos of Crooks. The report does not say what he did with those photos.
The investigation found that at 5:32 p.m., the sniper again saw Crooks and “shortly thereafter” reported the suspect in a group text with other police snipers at the scene, who were instructed to report the suspect to their commander.
At 5:41 pm, the sniper called command to report the suspect, and at 5:45 pm, the sniper sent a text message to Beaver ESU Group Command regarding the suspect, instructing command to relay the message. At 5:59 pm, Beaver County law enforcement operators received confirmation from the Butler County SWAT commander that command, including the Secret Service, had seen the message and requested more information regarding the suspect’s location.
The gunman opened fire about 13 minutes later.
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Oversight and Accountability Committee
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