An internal investigation by the US Secret Service has confirmed significant security problems on the day of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and also revealed new information, including that agents never ordered local police to secure the roof of the building used by the shooter, the Washington Post reports, citing informed sources.
WP interlocutors described the actions of Secret Service agents at the July 13 demonstration in Pennsylvania as “appallingly careless.” Cranes with flags were planned to be placed between the building from which the fire broke out and the stage, blocking the line of sight from this roof. However, inspectors who arrived before the demonstration discovered that the cranes had been incorrectly positioned.
Additionally, the internal investigation found that: The Secret Service radio room, where agents were supposed to monitor potential threats and receive reports of any problems, did not have the capability to receive real-time alerts from local police monitoring the crowd and the perimeter outside.
Moreover, the alert to local police about a suspicious person at the rally before Trump arrived was not widely broadcast on Secret Service radio. Instead, local countersnipers were tasked with sending a photo of a man acting strangely outside the Agr building and carrying a rangefinder to a single Secret Service employee.
Additionally, officers that day never heard radio traffic from local police trying to track and locate the man after Trump began his speech.
The report also said the Secret Service’s Directorate of Protective Operations was slow to step up security for Trump as his campaign began, even after the agency received intelligence indicating a plot by the Iranian government to kill or harm political candidates.
The attempted assassination of Trump took place on July 13 while he was speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. He was shot from a nearby one-story building at a distance of about 120 meters. The Republican was not seriously injured; the bullet only grazed his ear. One bystander, a 50-year-old firefighter, was killed in the attack. Corey Compatoretwo more were injured.
The shooter is Thomas, 20 years old. Matthew Crooks from the same state, was shot by snipers. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found next to his body.
The FBI said Crooks made 25 online gun purchases between last spring and the first half of this year and bought materials used in explosives six times. Also last year, Crooks searched the Internet for information about power plants, mass shootings and the attempted assassination of Slovakia’s prime minister. Roberta Fico. A week before the attempted assassination of Trump, I was looking for information about the assassination of the American president. John Kennedy in 1963, RBC recalls.
