The Secret Service has been roundly slammed for leaving unguarded a rooftop just 150 yards from where former President Donald Trump was speaking on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
As usual, it is being left to independent media to ask the most pressing questions.
One of those questions is being asked by Darren Beattie of Revolver News: How did would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks know the rooftop he was perched on would be unguarded?
Beattie, who blew the lid off the J6 "Fedsurrection," queried how the gunman knew that the rooftop "wasn’t crawling with cops, snipers, or Secret Service? Why did he choose the only unguarded spot around? Was it just blind, dumb luck, or something more sinister? It’s definitely something to think about, folks."
Benjamin Wetmore of the Gateway Pundit noted: "What does not make sense is how a 20-year-old nursing home food attendant managed to find one spot with a direct line of sight to President Trump and how Thomas Crooks managed to know of all the ongoing security lapses and failures that day, including the reassignment of the Secret Service to Jill Biden, who had a function in Pittsburgh the same day."
Wetmore also noted the changing and implausible stories FBI and Secret Service officials have been feeding legacy media.
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One is that Crooks purchased a five foot ladder that he used to gain access to the roof. But that story has changed also.
"Law enforcement is now suggesting to friendly mainstream media outlets that Crooks got onto the roof by climbing air conditioner units. The story keeps changing as their prior stories continue to fall apart," Wetmore wrote.
According to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who has rejected calls to resign, there was no agent placed on the building because it had a "sloped roof."
"That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point, and so there’s a safety factor that would be considered there, that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof," she said in a Tuesday interview with ABC News. "So, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from inside."
Many have pointed to the absurdity of Cheatle's claims, pointing out that the counter-snipers near Trump were perched on a roof with a steeper slope that the one Crooks was situated on.
Further complicating the situation is a New York Times report citing a law enforcement official who said that the local police department forces were in an adjacent building, not the one the shooter was firing from.
"Nothing from the Secret Service on this report - and not one mention of it in today's breakdown in the Washington Post - which is now suggesting that the slope could have hindered counter-snipers' view," Zero Hedge noted.
Conspicuously absent from the Secret Service's explanations are reports that a local police department sniper stationed on the second floor inside the building saw Crooks outside the building and looking up at the roof. He then walked away, returned, whipped out his phone, when one of the snipers took the first of two pictures of him.
Crooks then took out a rangefinder - at which point the sniper radioed to a command post. Crooks then disappeared again and came back a third time with a backpack. The snipers called in once again with information that he had a backpack and that he (Crooks) was walking toward the back of the building.
By the time other officers came for backup, he had climbed on top of the building and was positioned above and behind the snipers inside the building, the officer said.
Two other officers who heard the sniper's call tried to get onto the roof. State police started rushing to the scene, but by that time, a Secret Service sniper had already killed Crooks, the officer said, according to a CBS News report.
"So - law enforcement had eyes-on the shooter the entire time, took pictures of him, notified their command post - and nothing was done until Crooks shot Trump, at which point Secret Service snipers returned fire and killed him," Zero Hedge noted.
"Whatever happened in Butler, this was not a failure of the local, state or federal officers on the ground who responded to the shots fired at former President Trump. They acted heroically and put their lives on the line to protect everyone at the event and we must recognize that," said Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police. "This is a failure at the management or command level who failed to secure an obvious weakness in the security of this event."
On Monday, Cheatle in a live interview with ABC correspondent Pierre Thomas stated:
"In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter. And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building -- there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building."
In the early morning hours on Tuesday, the Secret Service posted this statement on the social media platform X: "Any news suggesting the Secret Service is blaming local law enforcement for Saturday’s incident is simply not true."
Yoes said: “I am having difficulty reconciling the answer the Director gave in her ABC interview with the official statement made on social media. Our goal is to provide whatever assistance the Secret Service needs to perform their mission and to do so with mutual respect, trust, and accuracy.”
Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari has opened an investigation of the Secret Service over its handling of security at the Butler rally.
Cuffari said the investigation is focused on evaluating the Secret Service’s “process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event.”
The office will also investigate the incident “to determine the extent to which the [Secret Service] Counter Sniper Team is prepared to respond to threats at events attended by designated protectees.”
JUST IN: USSS director Kim Cheatle says sn*pers weren't on the roof where Thomas Crooks shot from because it was "sloped" and unsafe.
Ironically, the sn*pers who were behind Trump during the rally were on a sloped roof. "That building in particular has a sloped roof at its… pic.twitter.com/Vg36tXr9rJ — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 16, 2024
BOMBSHELL.🚨
Trump's Would-Be Assassin on Secret Service Radar THREE HOURS Before Shooting President Thomas Matthew Crooks, alleged shooter in the Trump assassination attempt, was on the Secret Service's radar after he attempted to pass through a metal detector with a range… pic.twitter.com/rCfAbWsZrw — Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) July 17, 2024
Heart wrenching dissection of the assassination attempt on President Trump shows grave compromise by the security agents. I completely agree with this compelling expert analysis. Further revelation has shown that attendees even saw the gunman on rooftop before shooting. While… pic.twitter.com/XfqJ0IgFUX
— bar ifeanyi ejiofor (@EjioforBar) July 15, 2024
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