The House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump released its final report on Tuesday. The report covers the July 13 wounding of President-elect Trump at Butler, Pennsylvania, and the September 15 assassination attempt in West Palm Beach, Florida. //

So, the Secret Service was notified at 2:30 a.m. that Trump would play golf. He arrived at the golf course around 11 a.m. At 1:30 p.m., Trump having been on the golf course for about two hours, the Secret Service is conducting its preliminary sweep of the golf course boundary and discovers the shooter. The shooter, Ryan Wesley Routh, had been in his shooting position since 1:59 a.m. This latter data point is not mentioned in the report.

I'm not a highly trained Secret Service agent; I'm just a dumb sh** infantryman from Southside Virginia, but if I'd been given that mission, I would have conducted a preliminary sweep of the golf course sometime after dawn, placed observation posts at key spots and then done a rolling sweep after the golf party started moving. I would not have started my first pass over the golf course as Trump was playing through.

But it gets a lot better. //

The agent who discovered Routh fired six rounds (they think) at the gunman from a distance of five feet, scoring a perfect goose egg. //

How does any human miss a target basically within arm's reach? How do you get within five feet of a gunman without seeing anything (rhetorical question: you probably have your earbuds in, listening to tunes or a podcast, and daydreaming about what you're going to do when you get off shift)? And how, in the name of all that is Holy, can't you definitively tell how many rounds were fired? "[B]elieved six shots in total were fired" is NOT a number. Don't they keep track of ammunition in the Secret Service? Don't they have an SOP for loading magazines? How will "final ballistics" help determine this if you apparently don't know how many rounds you started out with? //

The Secret Service is a broken organization. A shameful performance by Director Kimberly Cheatle at a congressional hearing (BREAKING: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Resigns After Disastrous Hearing – RedState) and the juvenile "I'm a public servant" rant by Acting Director Ronald Rowe last week (MUST SEE: Screaming Fight Between GOP Rep, Secret Service Director at Trump Assassination Attempt Hearing) are just the most visible indicators of an organization that is just not capable of carrying out its mission of protecting the president.

"Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened."

Those stark words are contained in a damning House Task Force report about the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt against former president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. //

The report also points to logistical issues – particularly on the part of USSS – in the hours before the rally took place. For instance, there were two command centers set up for the event, with a witness testifying that no one from the Butler Police Department was invited to the USSS’ hub. //

Roughly an hour after the local officers first noticed Crooks, the would-be assassin fired eight shots into the rally, hitting Trump and the three attendees before being killed by a Secret Service sniper. //

"To date, the Task Force has not received any evidence to suggest that message reached the former President’s USSS detail prior to shots fired," the report said.

The report also quoted a witness from the Butler County Emergency Services United (ESU) whose account of shooting Crooks appears to undercut the USSS’s assertion that one of its snipers killed the gunman.

"He fired a single shot from a standing position at Crooks, who was in a prone position on the roof. Butler ESU Witness 5 told the Task Force that he believes his shot hit Crooks," the report said.

When one of the more senior Senate Democrats sounds the alarm bell regarding governmental failures, it says something — particularly if it involves former President Donald Trump (and I don't mean in a way that's critical of him). According to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the American people are going to be "shocked, appalled, astonished" when they see the interim report that lawmakers plan to release shortly regarding the July 13 assassination attempt on the former president. //

However, he did say that he believes there needs to be more accountability. "Without accountability, this kind of failure and lapse will happen again." //

Hallen
7 hours ago
Wow. If he's saying that, it means it's bad and there's no way for them to spin it. He's getting out in front of it so the stink doesn't land on him. That means it's the administration's fault which means it's the fault of Democrats.

It may be months before we know the whole story behind the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. It may be years. We may never know. (Sadly, my money's on the latter.) There are times when the "public's right to know" just seems to slip through our fingers, and this may well be one of those times. We can hope not — but there are murmurings now of evidence tampering. That last is a big, serious assertion — but on Monday, a SWAT counter-sniper who was on the scene testified at a panel discussion held by five Republican members of Congress about an "odd pattern" of evidence handling. //

Washington Regional SWAT counter-sniper Ben Shaffer said it was “absolutely” concerning that the roof of the AGR International building had been quickly scrubbed and gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’ body disposed of before an official autopsy report could be released. //

And another thing: Is it normally the role of the FBI to clean up crime scenes? Several companies in Pennsylvania specialize in hazardous materials removal and crime scene cleanup — are those kinds of contractors, not the usual people to clean up the aftermath of a scene like this?

There's more; the examination of Crooks' personal effects also raises some interesting questions. //

The encrypted communications seem like the biggest question. You can probably find directions on improvised explosives on the internet, if you know where to look, although I admit detonators would be a bit trickier. But encrypted communications platforms? Based in Belgium, Germany, and New Zealand? What platforms? What kind of platforms? What was sent and received by Crooks? Was he seeking information? Was he awaiting direction? If so, from whom? //

Mr. Fox
3 hours ago
I never considered myself a conspiracy theorist pre 2016...but after the fbi (and intel agencies en masse) lied to courts to spy on trump, leaked false stories to spin their spying as wrongdoing by trump, "investigated" russian collusion as a way to hide their wrongdoing and besmirch trump, trained and staged kidnapping plots on two democrat governors weeks before an election, planted fake bombs on jan 6, had plants in the crowd encouraging violence and lawlessness, raided trumps home leading to comical criminal indictments that the current president was actual guilty of....would any one be suprised if the fbi, cia, or ss trained this guy and let him get a shot off? Its a sad time in America.

I don't know a ton about Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), but I do know he has a background in law enforcement, so including him on the bipartisan task force investigating the J13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump seems like a sound decision. As one of 13 congressional members assigned to the task force, Higgins has been delving into the incident — had, in fact, already been investigating it personally prior to his appointment to the task force.

On August 12, Higgins filed a preliminary report to the task force Chairman Mike Kelly (R-PA), whose district encompasses the Butler County Fairgrounds (commonly referred to as "Butler Farm") where the incident occurred. The report was initially embargoed but on Thursday, was authorized for release. //

• The Secret Service (USSS) had never assigned a counter-sniper team to a former POTUS before J13. [What about presidential candidates/nominees?]

• Butler County tactical command had set aside radios for USSS to use for the event in the Emergency Services Unit (ESU) command post RV and reminded the USSS counter-sniper teams to pick them up, but they were never retrieved by USSS.

• The FBI cleaned up biological evidence from the crime scene, which, according to Higgins, "is unheard of. Cops don’t do that, ever."

• The FBI released Crooks’ body to his family for cremation on July 23. No one else knew about this until August 5.

Kylie Jane Kremer
@KylieJaneKremer
🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨

Matthew Crook’s body is GONE

@RepClayHiggins
requested to examine the assassin’s body and was told it was released to the family by the FBI.

Nobody even knew his body was gone until August 5, including the Butler County Coroner, LEO, and the Butler County Sheriff.

Crooks was cremated on July 23, just 10 days after the assassination attempt.

All roads keep leading back to alphabet agencies being involved and/or covering up what actually happened in Butler, PA when President Trump was shot.
8:13 PM · Aug 15, 2024

• “[T]his action by the FBI can only be described by any reasonable man as an obstruction to any following investigative effort.” //

The key takeaway from this, in my view, is that the USSS didn't avail themselves of available radios, which would have allowed them to be in direct communication with the local law enforcement personnel with whom they were supposed to be coordinating and, more importantly, the FBI moved very quickly to clear the personnel, clear the crime scene, and clear the shooter's body, even while knowing that there were ongoing investigations and would be follow-on investigations. Why were they in such a hurry? How are we supposed to feel reassured that they are conducting and will conduct a thorough, honest investigation?