WASHINGTON — The Secret Service failed to properly plan and coordinate with local law enforcement ahead of former President Donald Trump’s July 13 campaign rally where he was shot at in an assassination attempt, a new report says.
The interim report from the House of Representatives task force investigating the attempt on Trump’s life that day says the first phase of the investigation “clearly demonstrates a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the meeting.”
These findings, the bipartisan panel said, were based on 23 transcribed interviews with local law enforcement, thousands of pages of documents and testimony from the task force’s public hearing in September, the task force said in a news release.
On the day of the meeting, the task force said there had been opportunities in which “federal, state and local law enforcement officers could have engaged Thomas Matthew Crooks at several critical moments.” But the report says that “fragmented lines of communication allowed thugs to attempt to evade law enforcement and eventually climb onto the roof of the AGR complex and fire eight shots into the stage and crowd, killing one participant in the rally are killed and three others are injured, including former President Trump.
An officer with the Butler Township Police Department told the task force that he was helped onto the roof of the AGR complex by another officer and saw the shooter with the gun, saying Crooks “pointed his firearm in my face” and shot a had a book bag and weapons magazines with him. He said he fell to the ground and immediately radioed that the suspicious person on the roof was armed.
The officer who helped his colleague onto the roof told the task force, “I’m trying to get him to the roof. He’s a little off to the side, but he’s up there. He comes back down and shouts, ‘THERE’S AN AR! AN AR! A GUY WITH AN AR!’”
“To date, the Task Force has not received any evidence indicating that the message reached the former President’s USSS unit before the shots were fired,” the Task Force said in its report.
By the time information about the shooter reached the Secret Service command post, the task force said, “The thugs had been under surveillance by the Secret Service’s state and local partners for approximately 40 minutes.”
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
The report details the lack of coordination between law enforcement agencies on the morning of July 13, leading up to the meeting. For example, the Butler County Emergency Services Unit held its own briefing, as did the Butler Township Police Department, but the task force said, “The Secret Service did not participate in either briefing.” There was also no broader briefing between the Secret Service and other law enforcement, the task force said.
The task force said it is still conducting more than two dozen transcribed interviews with federal officials and others who may have more information about what happened on July 13. It is also investigating the alleged assassination attempt on Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course. , Florida, on September 15. The panel has requested information and documents from the Secret Service, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
