A campaign staffer’s concerns over creating the best visuals for press photos of Donald J. Trump’s fateful 2024 rally in Butler, Pa., prevented the U.S. Secret Service from using large farm equipment on site to block the clear line of sight that was eventually used by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to fire on Trump and rally attendees, a new report states.
The Government Accountability Office report released Saturday by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said as a result, the Secret Service deviated from its plan and relied on a jumbo video screen and large American flag as options to mitigate the clear view Crooks later had from a building rooftop 130 yards from the stage.
‘Not using the farm equipment possibly created an opportunity for the gunman.’
As the Secret Service developed its security plan for the Butler Farm Show Inc. grounds, “a Trump campaign staffer asked members of the Secret Service advance team not to use large farm equipment to address line-of-sight concerns near one of the buildings—the AGR building—located near the rally presentation stage,” the report stated.
The Secret Service advance team changed its plan for line-of-sight mitigation without consulting senior USSS officials, leaving top agency officials unaware of the shift in plans, the report said. Crooks used a rooftop of the nearby American Glass Research International complex to unleash a hail of bullets on the Trump rally shortly after 6 p.m. on July 13, 2024.
“The Secret Service advance team originally planned to use the farm equipment to block line-of-sight vulnerabilities created by the AGR rooftop, but according to members of the Secret Service advance team, the campaign staffer said the equipment would interfere with campaign press photos,” the report said.
“The Secret Service cannot definitively determine whether the farm equipment it originally planned to use to address the line-of-sight vulnerability would have completely blocked or prevented the gunman from using the AGR building to carry out his assassination attempt,” the report said.
RELATED: Reporter who attended Butler rally REVEALS what President Trump said BEFORE ‘Fight, fight, fight!’
Snipers stand watch on a rooftop during a campaign event with former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania.Photo by Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“However, not using the farm equipment possibly created an opportunity for the gunman to use the AGR’s elevated rooftop to fire several shots at then-former President Trump and kill and injure other rally participants.”
Crooks, who had been spotted and flagged as suspicious by local law enforcement nearly an hour before the shooting, managed to evade police, climb onto the AGR roof and fire a bullet that came within inches of striking President Trump’s head. Crooks fired multiple shots at the stage area, wounding Trump in the ear, killing local firefighter Corey Comperatore and seriously wounding two attendees.
FBI subpoenaed for Butler information
As the one-year anniversary of the attempted assassination approaches, another key lawmaker issued a subpoena to the FBI for records from its investigation of Crooks and the Trump campaign rally.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, on Friday issued a subpoena to FBI Director Kash Patel after months of failed attempts to get the bureau “to be more forthcoming.”
“One year following the assassination attempt of President Trump, the American people still do not have answers to all of their questions about the breakdown of security at the Butler campaign rally and detailed information about the would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks,” Johnson said in a statement.
“I had expected the FBI to be more forthcoming with the public and provide my office with the records we have been seeking for months,” Johnson said. “I am issuing the subpoena to help prompt transparency and I look forward to Director Patel’s full cooperation.”
The subpoena came at a time when the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice are reeling from public backlash over declaring the investigation into sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein essentially over without releasing documents long promised by top officials.
‘The Secret Service’s failure on July 13th was the culmination of years of mismanagement.’
The Senate subpoena requires the FBI to provide security camera footage “that may identify Crooks’ movements in advance of the shooting,” forensic reports such as ballistics, trajectory, explosive and drone analysis, and records on Crooks related to social media, email, search histories, call logs and other communications, Johnson said.
Patel and the FBI were given an Aug. 1 deadline to provide the information. The director was also commanded to appear at a 5 p.m. hearing that day before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Johnson, who first issued demands for information on the assassination attempt the day after the Butler rally, has long complained about a lack of cooperation from government agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI, the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security.
The new GAO report repeated previously noted Secret Service failures that contributed to the near assassination of President Trump. It said while the Secret Service has made strides in changing policies and practices to prevent another such an occurrence, more needs to be done.
When then-former President Trump returned to the Pennsylvania site of his attempted assassination in October 2024, he spoke from behind bulletproof glass.Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
“One year ago, a series of bad decisions and bureaucratic handicaps led to one of the most shocking moments in political history,” Grassley said in a July 12 statement.
“The Secret Service’s failure on July 13th was the culmination of years of mismanagement and came after the Biden administration denied requests for enhanced security to protect President Trump,” Grassley said. “Americans should be grateful that President Trump survived that day and was ultimately reelected to restore common sense to our country.”
The report cited the Secret Service’s failure to share threat assessment information even among its own staff in the days leading up to the Butler rally. While some of the threat information received by USSS was classified, no non-classified version was supplied to the various Secret Service and local law enforcement advance teams assigned to the rally.
“In particular, state and local law enforcement had significant responsibilities for protecting the area around the AGR International Inc. building, where the gunman ultimately climbed on a roof and took his shots from,” the report said. “However, the state and local law enforcement officials who helped plan for and execute security for the July 13 rally were not aware of threats to then-former President Trump.
“Again, siloed information-sharing practices prevented officials with significant security responsibilities from having access to threat information that could have changed how they secured the area,” the report said. “State and local law enforcement officials we met with told us that had they known of threat information, they would have taken different steps to secure the area.”
The report said advance teams planning for the rally were unaware of all the resources they could request to support security efforts. Some did not request these assets because they believed based on experience the requests would be denied, the report said.
“The lead advance agent stated that she did not request a Task Force Counter Surveillance Unit for the rally even though this asset could have helped mitigate the known risk,” the report said. “The site counterpart also noted that she believed this asset could have been helpful, but the lead advance agent told her that this asset was not available for a former President and the lead advance agent assumed that the request would be denied.”
The Secret Service released a report on July 10 observing the one-year anniversary and providing updates on changes made since the Butler rally.
“The July 13 attack was nothing short of a tragedy, one felt not only by those in Butler that day, but around the world,” the Secret Service said in a statement. “It also represents an operational failure that the Secret Service will carry as a reminder of the critical importance of its zero-fail mission and the need for continuous improvement.”
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