Secret Service Claimed It was Covering Rooftop Where Gunman Shot at Trump in Butler: Whistleblower; Secret Service Admits Golf Course Wasn’t Searched Before Trump Assassination Attempt

Secret Service claimed it was covering rooftop where gunman shot at Trump in Butler: Whistleblower

The Secret Service allegedly told local law enforcement that it would cover the rooftop where a gunman fired at former President Donald Trump during his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a new whistleblower account.

One of the local law enforcement officers involved in securing the Butler rally came forward as a whistleblower to a House GOP group investigating the assassination attempt.

“The Secret Service said they were covering that roof,” Rep. Cory Mills, Florida Republican, told The Washington Times.

Mr. Mills, who is leading the independent investigation along with a handful of other GOP colleagues, said his group plans to hold a public forum “soon” with the law enforcement whistleblower, who works in a local Emergency Service Unit that provided security that day.

“The new whistleblower we have is actually on one of the ESU teams, and he’ll be able to paint a different picture of why it wasn’t the ESU, but it was actually the Secret Service who determined the perimeter bubble,” Mr. Mills said.

He declined to say whether the whistleblower works for Butler County ESU, which provided countersniper coverage at the AGR International Inc. complex adjacent to the Butler Farm Show rally site.

The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, used HVAC equipment and a pipe to climb onto the rooftop of the AGR building closest to site and fired at Mr. Trump, hitting him in the ear. Crooks fired eight rounds, killing one rallygoer and injuring two others, before one of the Secret Service snipers shot and killed him.

The whistleblower’s account varies from remarks that Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe made at a news conference Friday detailing initial findings of the agency’s internal probe into the Butler assassination attempt.

“There was a discussion about how the roof was going to be secured” and a Secret Service “assumption” that local law enforcement had it covered, he said. “But there clearly was not that follow-up to make sure.” —>READ MORE HERE

Secret Service admits golf course wasn’t searched before Trump assassination attempt:

Secret Service agents didn’t sweep the outskirts of Donald Trump’s Florida golf course where his alleged would-be assassin was hiding because the former president’s visit was an “off-the-record” plan, the embattled agency’s acting director admitted.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, allegedly set up a sniper’s nest on the edge of Trump International West Palm Beach and hid there undetected for nearly 12 hours before Trump, 78, teed off on Sunday afternoon, federal prosecutors said.

Acting Secret Service head Ronald Rowe Jr. said Monday that agents didn’t mount an intense search of the perimeter because the 45th president’s round wasn’t on his official calendar.

“The president wasn’t even really supposed to go there. It was not on his official schedule,” Rowe told reporters as he defended the security measures in place.

“And so we put together a security plan — and that security plan worked,” he said of Routh’s arrest before he got off any shots.

Rowe stopped short of clarifying whether the “off-the-record” stop meant agents didn’t have enough time to scour the former president’s golf course.

Still, the acting director hailed the agents who ended up spotting the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course and opened fire on the suspect before he could take a shot.

The suspect allegedly dropped his rifle when an agent opened fire and fled in an SUV — leaving behind his firearm, two backpacks and a GoPro camera, according to a criminal complaint. —>READ MORE HERE

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