The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has a lengthy and damning report about the failure in protecting Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. The former president was shot, missing a fatal headshot by inches. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was perched atop the American Glass Research roof which was less than 500 yards from the rally stage.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) spoke with Fox News’ Jesse Watters about the attempt, adding that what we know about this attempted assassination is more so due to the transparency and cooperation of local authorities, not the FBI or Secret Service who have been unordinarily cagey about this incident. There’s another question, though one that’s less glaring than the rooftop being left unsecure but is still important: who killed Crooks? Was it local law enforcement sniper teams or federal ones? We don’t know because the body was cremated, and the autopsy and toxicology reports have yet to be released. The Wisconsin Republican also said that they have yet to receive any transcripts of the interviews the FBI conducted which number over 1,000 people. They have nothing from the intelligence community on this kid, no briefs on his encrypted online activity, and Johnson said subpoenas need to be issued (via RealClearPolitics):
Sen. Johnson: Local Police Believe They Shot Trump Shooter, We Don't Know Because His Body Has Been Crematedhttps://t.co/pFzeHXdwhy
— RCP Video (@rcpvideo) September 26, 2024
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Well, Jesse, well, first of all, people need to understand, most of what we know about what happened on July 13th comes from local law enforcement. Not the Secret Service, not the FBI.
They're still being pretty opaque. I think what stands out to me, I mean, you mentioned the one thing, we had one sniper that we interviewed. He was on the team that had an obstructed view. They couldn't see Crooks, there was a tree in front of him. Both those snipers apparently believe a bullet went between them. You can hear the whiz crack from the bullet. So that opens up all kinds of questions. They couldn't see Crooks, Crooks couldn't see them, and yet a bullet flew between the Hercules 2 sniper team.
Now, the other thing that hasn't been widely reported is local law enforcement took the first shot at Crooks. That local law enforcement officer was confident he hit Crooks. Now, again, we can't verify that because the body's been cremated. We haven't seen the autopsy report. Apparently, we'll have to subpoena it like the House did. We haven't seen the toxicology report. We don't have crime scene photos.
We haven't received one of the FBI's transcripts from their over 1,000 interviews. We've been given 12 people to interview, and quite honestly, the only reason we've got some pretty decent interviews out of that is my staff talking to local law enforcement the week after the assassination attempt got the names of Secret Service agents on the ground or else we'd be floundering and the Secret Service wouldn't be providing us people that provide us any kind of information whatsoever. So, again, from my standpoint, this continues to be a slow walking of information to us.
You know, we don't know anything about Crooks. You know, we don't know the encrypted accounts of social media, and yet the FBI releases the manifesto from the other assassin. And by the way, we don't have the CIA or the FBI or the CBP files on that guy either.
So, again, federal law enforcement is being completely opaque. God bless the local law enforcement officers, first of all, for taking the shot that stopped Crooks from shooting. We honestly don't know whether he got hit or not because we don't have an autopsy report.
But the feds, again, are slow walking. They're not being transparent. They're going to have to be subpoenaed.
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Even Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has voiced his extreme frustration with the stonewalling from the Department of Homeland Security.
Still, the most glaring flaw rests with the security zone, where the AGR rooftop was left unprotected, a line of inquiry that the Secret Service has yet to answer. The initial explanation was that the sloped roof posed a physical harm to the sniper teams. That got laughed out of the room, ending in the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberley Cheatle in July. Secret Service also couldn’t access the local police radio system, and the walkthrough was reportedly a disaster—with the Secret Service allegedly dismissing security issues. Also, no one knew who was in charge.
And that’s how you get what we all saw on July 13.
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