Secret Service agents never told local police to guard the rooftop that was used by Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot at Donald Trump, according to damaging new revelations from the Washington Post.
Details of yet another failure in preparation were leaked to the Post.
The leaker reported details of an internal Secret Service probe to the newspaper.
The Post writes, “A Secret Service investigation has confirmed security breakdowns that paved the way for an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, while also revealing new information—including that agents never directed local police to secure the roof of the building used by the gunman, according to two senior government officials familiar with the probe.”
The leakers describe an “alarmingly slipshod strategy” to protect the former president during his rally at Butler, Pennsylvania, on 13 July.
“Agents securing the event had discussed possibly using heavy equipment and flags to create a visual impediment between the Agr International building and the rally stage, the officials said. But supervisors who arrived at Butler the day of the rally found cranes, trucks and flags were not deployed in a way that blocked the line of sight from that roof.”
Other damaging revelations that were previously reported include claims that Secret Service agents failed to pick up radios that were assigned to them by local police, confusing communications.
A video released to the press showed a local policeman blasting Secret Service agents for being incommunicado after he confronted Thomas Matthew Crooks on the rooftop before Crooks opened fire.
A communication breakdown has been highlighted as one of the key contributing factors allowing Thomas Matthew Crooks to gain access to his rooftop sniper’s perch and fire eight shots at the former president before being eliminated.
“Local officials were penned in by a cumbersome hierarchical system of reporting that stymied the flow of urgent information from one unit to the next,” Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa told CNN in a statement.
“There was no unified radio channel for all law enforcement on the premises to communicate in the event of an emergency—instead, units connected over various radio channels, group chats and even emails,” Grassley said. “Officers relied heavily on spotty cell service to get their messages through, and were often unsure if the right law enforcement entity received them.”
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