Trying to into a useful amount like pounds. My estimate would be 4 bags, so 200 lbs. definitely be loud if a surface blast. Still need a primer and a cap, or it is just fertilizer.
BREAKING!! TRUMP HAS BEEN SHOT
- Thread starter B00Mer
- Start date
If killing Trump is successful, I'm sure this "funny soliloquy" will be even funnier. I'm afraid of what would happen if his killing is successful.The latest series of deadly traps matched what has become a disturbing pattern along Trump's pathway to election day, with experts speculating that the former president may find himself dodging multiple assassination attempts per day over the next several weeks.
"It's almost as if there's some unseen force out to get him," said one campaign insider. "Some members of the media have started accusing us of being paranoid, but after that huge wrecking ball swung just barely in front of Trump's vehicle yesterday followed by him narrowly avoiding stepping into that moat filled with hungry crocodiles outside Mar-a-Lago the day before, we're all starting to think something fishy is going on."
Trump's critics were quick to suggest the events weren't as dangerous as reported. "Oh, come on, like that's anything worse than what we all deal with every day," said one anti-Trump protester. "So he's having to dodge numerous deadly attacks each day, big whoop! He obviously brought this on himself with all his divisive rhetoric and attempts to overthrow democracy. Maybe he should do himself a favor and just drop out of the race."
At publishing time, Trump had reportedly safely reached the location of today's rally, despite being narrowly missed by a poison blow dart, having a knife thrown into the wall just beside his head, and rolling out of the way of a runaway cement truck.
Trump Dodges Falling Piano, Swinging Death Blade, Spiked Pitfall Trap On Way To Rally
LONG ISLAND, NY — The tension of election season reached a new high today with conflicting reports of further attempts on the life of the former president, as Donald Trump dodged a falling piano, a swinging death blade, and a spiked pitfall trap on his way to a campaign rally.babylonbee.com
You have to remember that 50% of the people support Trump & they'll be pissed....just sayin.
Secret Service report details communication failures preceding July assassination attempt on Trump
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Rebecca Santana, Eric Tucker And Alanna Durkin Richer
Published Sep 20, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON — Communication breakdowns with local law enforcement hampered the Secret Service’s performance ahead of a July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, according to a new report that lays out a litany of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured roof.
A five-page document summarizing the Secret Service report’s key conclusions finds fault with both local and federal law enforcement, underscoring the cascading and wide-ranging failings that preceded the July 13 shooting at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally where Trump was wounded in the ear by gunfire.
Though the failed response has been well-documented through congressional testimony, news media investigations and other public statements, the report being released Friday marks the Secret Service’s most formal attempt to catalog the errors of the day and is being released amid fresh scrutiny following Sunday’s arrest in Florida of a man who authorities say wanted to kill Trump.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another mission failure like this again,” Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe Jr. said in a statement accompanying the release of the report into the agency’s own internal investigation.
The report details a series of “communications deficiencies” before the shooting by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot by a Secret Service counter-sniper after firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction from the roof of a building less than 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. It makes clear that the Secret Service knew even before the shooting that the rally site posed a security challenge.
Among the problems: Some local police at the site were unaware of the existence of two communications centres on the grounds, meaning officers did not know that the Secret Service were not receiving their radio transmission.
Law enforcement also communicated vital information outside the Secret Service’s radio frequencies. As officers searched for Crooks before the shooting, details were being transmitted “via mobile/cellular devices in staggered or fragmented fashion” instead of through the Secret Service’s own network.
“The failure of personnel to broadcast via radio the description of the assailant, or vital information received from local law enforcement regarding a suspicious individual on the roof of the AGR complex, to all federal personnel at the Butler site inhibited the collective awareness of all Secret Service personnel,” the report said.
That breakdown was especially problematic for Trump’s protective detail, “who were not apprised of how focused state and local law enforcement were in the minutes leading up to the attack on locating the suspicious subject.” Had they known, the report says, they could have made the decision to relocate Trump while the search was in process.
The report raises more serious questions about why no law enforcement were stationed on the roof Crooks climbed onto before opening fire.
A local tactical team was stationed on the second floor of a building in the complex from which Crooks fired. Multiple law enforcement entities questioned the effectiveness of the team’s position, “yet there was no follow-up discussion” about changing it, the report says. And there was no discussion with Secret Service about putting a team on the roof, even though snipers from local law enforcement agencies “were apparently not opposed to that location.”
The tactical team operating on the second floor of the building had no contact with Secret Service before the rally. That team was brought in by a local police department to help with the event, without Secret Service’s knowledge, the report says.
The Secret Service understood in advance that the rally site, selected by Trump’s staff because it better accommodated the “large number of desired attendees,” was a security challenge because of lines of sight that could be exploited by a would-be attacker. And yet, the report said, no security measures were taken on July 13 to remove those concerns and the Secret Service lacked detailed knowledge about the local law enforcement support that would even be in place.
The report’s executive summary does not identify specific individuals who may be to blame nor does it indicate whether any staff members have been disciplined, though The Associated Press has previously reported that at least five Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty. The director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned more than a week after the shooting, saying she took full responsibility for the lapse.
The Secret Service’s investigation is one of numerous inquiries, including by Congress and a watchdog probe by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general office.
Rowe has said the July shooting and Sunday’s episode, in which 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested after Secret Service agents detected a rifle poking through shrubbery lining the West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where Trump was playing, underscore the need for a paradigm shift in how the agency protects public officials.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Rebecca Santana, Eric Tucker And Alanna Durkin Richer
Published Sep 20, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON — Communication breakdowns with local law enforcement hampered the Secret Service’s performance ahead of a July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, according to a new report that lays out a litany of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured roof.
A five-page document summarizing the Secret Service report’s key conclusions finds fault with both local and federal law enforcement, underscoring the cascading and wide-ranging failings that preceded the July 13 shooting at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally where Trump was wounded in the ear by gunfire.
Though the failed response has been well-documented through congressional testimony, news media investigations and other public statements, the report being released Friday marks the Secret Service’s most formal attempt to catalog the errors of the day and is being released amid fresh scrutiny following Sunday’s arrest in Florida of a man who authorities say wanted to kill Trump.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another mission failure like this again,” Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe Jr. said in a statement accompanying the release of the report into the agency’s own internal investigation.
The report details a series of “communications deficiencies” before the shooting by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot by a Secret Service counter-sniper after firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction from the roof of a building less than 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. It makes clear that the Secret Service knew even before the shooting that the rally site posed a security challenge.
Among the problems: Some local police at the site were unaware of the existence of two communications centres on the grounds, meaning officers did not know that the Secret Service were not receiving their radio transmission.
Law enforcement also communicated vital information outside the Secret Service’s radio frequencies. As officers searched for Crooks before the shooting, details were being transmitted “via mobile/cellular devices in staggered or fragmented fashion” instead of through the Secret Service’s own network.
“The failure of personnel to broadcast via radio the description of the assailant, or vital information received from local law enforcement regarding a suspicious individual on the roof of the AGR complex, to all federal personnel at the Butler site inhibited the collective awareness of all Secret Service personnel,” the report said.
That breakdown was especially problematic for Trump’s protective detail, “who were not apprised of how focused state and local law enforcement were in the minutes leading up to the attack on locating the suspicious subject.” Had they known, the report says, they could have made the decision to relocate Trump while the search was in process.
The report raises more serious questions about why no law enforcement were stationed on the roof Crooks climbed onto before opening fire.
A local tactical team was stationed on the second floor of a building in the complex from which Crooks fired. Multiple law enforcement entities questioned the effectiveness of the team’s position, “yet there was no follow-up discussion” about changing it, the report says. And there was no discussion with Secret Service about putting a team on the roof, even though snipers from local law enforcement agencies “were apparently not opposed to that location.”
The tactical team operating on the second floor of the building had no contact with Secret Service before the rally. That team was brought in by a local police department to help with the event, without Secret Service’s knowledge, the report says.
The Secret Service understood in advance that the rally site, selected by Trump’s staff because it better accommodated the “large number of desired attendees,” was a security challenge because of lines of sight that could be exploited by a would-be attacker. And yet, the report said, no security measures were taken on July 13 to remove those concerns and the Secret Service lacked detailed knowledge about the local law enforcement support that would even be in place.
The report’s executive summary does not identify specific individuals who may be to blame nor does it indicate whether any staff members have been disciplined, though The Associated Press has previously reported that at least five Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty. The director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned more than a week after the shooting, saying she took full responsibility for the lapse.
The Secret Service’s investigation is one of numerous inquiries, including by Congress and a watchdog probe by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general office.
Rowe has said the July shooting and Sunday’s episode, in which 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested after Secret Service agents detected a rifle poking through shrubbery lining the West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where Trump was playing, underscore the need for a paradigm shift in how the agency protects public officials.
Secret Service report details communication failures preceding July assassination attempt on Trump
Communication breakdowns with local police hampered the Secret Service's performance before July assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Those who raised suspicions about Trump suspect question if enough was done
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Bernard Condon
Published Sep 21, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 7 minute read
The more Chelsea Walsh talked to the eccentric fellow American who seemed to pop up in every square and cobblestone street of Ukraine’s capital, the more she got creeped out.
Walsh was in Kyiv as a nurse and aid worker in the early days of the war in Ukraine. Ryan Routh was there to recruit foreign soldiers to fight the Russians. But Walsh never saw him make much progress and instead watched him grow increasingly angry and unhinged, kicking a panhandler, threatening to burn down a music studio that slighted him and speaking of his own children with seething hatred.
Just as troubling, she said, was Routh’s obsessive, oddly specific plotting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, describing the various explosives, poisons and cross-border maneuvers that Routh would employ “to kill him in his sleep.”
“Ryan Routh is a ticking time bomb,” she recalled telling U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in an hourlong interview upon returning to the United States at Dulles International Airport near Washington in June 2022. She says she later repeated her concerns in separate tips to both the FBI and Interpol, the international policing group.
“There is one person you need to watch,” she said. “And that is Ryan Routh.”
Walsh says she never heard back about her tips and she did not think much more about Routh until she saw him in the news last Sunday as the 58-year-old accused of stalking Donald Trump at the former president’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in an apparent assassination attempt.
Walsh’s account was one of at least four reports to the U.S. government that, while not direct threats to Trump, raised suspicions about Routh in the years leading up to his arrest. Others included a tip to the FBI in 2019 about Routh being in possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, an online report by an aid worker to the State Department last year questioning Routh’s military recruiting tactics, and Routh’s own interview with Customs and Border Protection about those efforts, prompting a referral for a possible inquiry by Homeland Security Investigations.
What was done in response that could have stopped Routh or at least put him under greater scrutiny is not entirely clear. The agencies involved either did not respond to queries from The Associated Press, have no record of such a report or had questions about whether the report warranted further investigation.
But some people are asking whether federal agencies are vigilant enough or even equipped enough to deal with a growing number of potential threats that are brought to their attention every day.
“Federal agencies ought to be on the highest alert to detect and combat these threats,” said Republican Sen Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Congress and the American people need assurance that the federal government is doing all it can.”
Walsh, who lives just a few miles from Trump’s golf course, said she cannot help but think all of this could have been avoided.
“The authorities have definitely dropped the ball on this,” she said. “They were warned.”
Sarah Adams, an ex-CIA officer who was behind the State Department tip, said she decided to act after learning Routh was trying to recruit former Afghan fighters with false promises of spots in the Ukrainian military.
She said she drafted a bulletin urging the 50 humanitarian aid groups she was helping in Ukraine to keep Routh at arm’s length, and she had her company send a similar online report to the State Department.
“There was plenty to look into,” said Adams, who lives in Tampa, Florida. “I don’t know if they even assigned someone to work it.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said there is no record of any complaints about Routh. He said he could not rule out that “someone didn’t have a communication with somebody somewhere.”
Similarly, Customs and Border Protection said it could not confirm Walsh had a meeting with one of its agents because it does not comment on individual cases. The FBI also declined to confirm Walsh’s warning, citing a policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations. Interpol did not respond to a request for comment.
Walsh showed the AP notes that she took while talking to Customs and Border Protection, and a text she sent to a friend about her messages to the FBI and Interpol with a time stamp soon after she sent them.
Routh, a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years moved to Hawaii, was being held on weapons charges related to the Trump case. His federal public defender, Kristy Militello, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh was never shy about speaking out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world.
He was interviewed by The New York Times, photographed by the AP and other news organizations and appeared in videos from Kyiv making his pitch for foreign fighters. He put out a self-published book last year on Amazon, “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” in which he writes of the wisdom of a well-timed killing of a world leader to change history.
“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote, referring to Iran in retaliation for the former president’s decision to abandon the U.S. nuclear deal with that country. Routh went on to describe Trump, whom he had voted for in 2016, as a “fool” and “buffoon” for the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and for pushing a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine.
Walsh said she initially found the wiry, floppy-haired Routh to be just bizarre. But as time went on, she got a darker vibe from the way Routh lurked in the streets, seemed to be everywhere and kept tabs on everyone.
She watched as Routh kicked a homeless man begging for money and then snarled, “The Ukrainians should be paying me for what I am doing here!” She said he talked of his grown children with such hatred — “I wish I never had them” — that it frightened her. She remembers how he threatened to burn down a music studio because people there laughed at him over a song he wrote.
“Ryan was the kind of guy who would blow up a building on Tuesday, just because he felt like it,” Walsh said.
Routh’s musings about killing Putin were echoed in his book published last year that describes an even more far-fetched plan for someone with no military experience: launching thousands of weaponized drones to flatten Putin’s many residences.
But in the end, he wrote, the Ukrainians and disaffected Russians he hoped to recruit as accomplices lost their “courage and will” to pull it off.
In 2019, three years before Routh flew to Kyiv to build a foreign legion, the FBI followed up on a tip that he was in possession of a firearm despite felony convictions from years earlier.
But when questioned, the alleged tipster backed off and did not verify providing the initial information. The FBI then referred the matter to Hawaiian law enforcement for further investigation. Honolulu police confirmed this week they were looking into it.
In June 2023, Routh was pulled aside by Customs and Border Protection agents at the Honolulu airport when returning from Ukraine, Poland and Turkey, and asked about his activities overseas.
As first reported by the website Just the News and confirmed in congressional testimony this past week, documents show Routh told them he had been recruiting as many as 100 fighters from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan, and that his wife was paying for his efforts.
Routh also gave agents a business card that claimed he was the director of a group called the International Volunteer Center.
The documents state that the agents referred Routh’s case to Homeland Security Investigations for further scrutiny but it declined to pursue the matter.
In congressional testimony Wednesday, Katrina Berger, executive associate director of the agency, noted that it gets hundreds of such requests a day and that Routh’s comments did not rise to the level to take him into “immediate custody.”
Asked specifically to confirm whether a further investigation was declined, she said she was not sure and would look into it.
Routh’s criminal history in his native Greensboro, North Carolina, includes a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.
In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. Police alleged in an affidavit that he was selling the items to purchase crack cocaine.
In both felony cases, court records show judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence, allowing him to escape prison time.
Tracy Fulk, a now-retired Greensboro police officer who arrested Routh in the long-ago armed standoff, said she was not surprised by last week’s news about Routh.
“Remembering all the alerts and run-ins and stuff,” she said, “he was kind of ‘out there.”‘
—Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker, Eric Tucker, Matthew Lee and Rebecca Santana in Washington; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Makiya Seminera in Greensboro, North Carolina; Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Joshua Goodman in Miami; and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Bernard Condon
Published Sep 21, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 7 minute read
The more Chelsea Walsh talked to the eccentric fellow American who seemed to pop up in every square and cobblestone street of Ukraine’s capital, the more she got creeped out.
Walsh was in Kyiv as a nurse and aid worker in the early days of the war in Ukraine. Ryan Routh was there to recruit foreign soldiers to fight the Russians. But Walsh never saw him make much progress and instead watched him grow increasingly angry and unhinged, kicking a panhandler, threatening to burn down a music studio that slighted him and speaking of his own children with seething hatred.
Just as troubling, she said, was Routh’s obsessive, oddly specific plotting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, describing the various explosives, poisons and cross-border maneuvers that Routh would employ “to kill him in his sleep.”
“Ryan Routh is a ticking time bomb,” she recalled telling U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in an hourlong interview upon returning to the United States at Dulles International Airport near Washington in June 2022. She says she later repeated her concerns in separate tips to both the FBI and Interpol, the international policing group.
“There is one person you need to watch,” she said. “And that is Ryan Routh.”
Walsh says she never heard back about her tips and she did not think much more about Routh until she saw him in the news last Sunday as the 58-year-old accused of stalking Donald Trump at the former president’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in an apparent assassination attempt.
Walsh’s account was one of at least four reports to the U.S. government that, while not direct threats to Trump, raised suspicions about Routh in the years leading up to his arrest. Others included a tip to the FBI in 2019 about Routh being in possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, an online report by an aid worker to the State Department last year questioning Routh’s military recruiting tactics, and Routh’s own interview with Customs and Border Protection about those efforts, prompting a referral for a possible inquiry by Homeland Security Investigations.
What was done in response that could have stopped Routh or at least put him under greater scrutiny is not entirely clear. The agencies involved either did not respond to queries from The Associated Press, have no record of such a report or had questions about whether the report warranted further investigation.
But some people are asking whether federal agencies are vigilant enough or even equipped enough to deal with a growing number of potential threats that are brought to their attention every day.
“Federal agencies ought to be on the highest alert to detect and combat these threats,” said Republican Sen Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Congress and the American people need assurance that the federal government is doing all it can.”
Walsh, who lives just a few miles from Trump’s golf course, said she cannot help but think all of this could have been avoided.
“The authorities have definitely dropped the ball on this,” she said. “They were warned.”
Sarah Adams, an ex-CIA officer who was behind the State Department tip, said she decided to act after learning Routh was trying to recruit former Afghan fighters with false promises of spots in the Ukrainian military.
She said she drafted a bulletin urging the 50 humanitarian aid groups she was helping in Ukraine to keep Routh at arm’s length, and she had her company send a similar online report to the State Department.
“There was plenty to look into,” said Adams, who lives in Tampa, Florida. “I don’t know if they even assigned someone to work it.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said there is no record of any complaints about Routh. He said he could not rule out that “someone didn’t have a communication with somebody somewhere.”
Similarly, Customs and Border Protection said it could not confirm Walsh had a meeting with one of its agents because it does not comment on individual cases. The FBI also declined to confirm Walsh’s warning, citing a policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations. Interpol did not respond to a request for comment.
Walsh showed the AP notes that she took while talking to Customs and Border Protection, and a text she sent to a friend about her messages to the FBI and Interpol with a time stamp soon after she sent them.
Routh, a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years moved to Hawaii, was being held on weapons charges related to the Trump case. His federal public defender, Kristy Militello, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh was never shy about speaking out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world.
He was interviewed by The New York Times, photographed by the AP and other news organizations and appeared in videos from Kyiv making his pitch for foreign fighters. He put out a self-published book last year on Amazon, “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” in which he writes of the wisdom of a well-timed killing of a world leader to change history.
“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote, referring to Iran in retaliation for the former president’s decision to abandon the U.S. nuclear deal with that country. Routh went on to describe Trump, whom he had voted for in 2016, as a “fool” and “buffoon” for the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and for pushing a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine.
Walsh said she initially found the wiry, floppy-haired Routh to be just bizarre. But as time went on, she got a darker vibe from the way Routh lurked in the streets, seemed to be everywhere and kept tabs on everyone.
She watched as Routh kicked a homeless man begging for money and then snarled, “The Ukrainians should be paying me for what I am doing here!” She said he talked of his grown children with such hatred — “I wish I never had them” — that it frightened her. She remembers how he threatened to burn down a music studio because people there laughed at him over a song he wrote.
“Ryan was the kind of guy who would blow up a building on Tuesday, just because he felt like it,” Walsh said.
Routh’s musings about killing Putin were echoed in his book published last year that describes an even more far-fetched plan for someone with no military experience: launching thousands of weaponized drones to flatten Putin’s many residences.
But in the end, he wrote, the Ukrainians and disaffected Russians he hoped to recruit as accomplices lost their “courage and will” to pull it off.
In 2019, three years before Routh flew to Kyiv to build a foreign legion, the FBI followed up on a tip that he was in possession of a firearm despite felony convictions from years earlier.
But when questioned, the alleged tipster backed off and did not verify providing the initial information. The FBI then referred the matter to Hawaiian law enforcement for further investigation. Honolulu police confirmed this week they were looking into it.
In June 2023, Routh was pulled aside by Customs and Border Protection agents at the Honolulu airport when returning from Ukraine, Poland and Turkey, and asked about his activities overseas.
As first reported by the website Just the News and confirmed in congressional testimony this past week, documents show Routh told them he had been recruiting as many as 100 fighters from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan, and that his wife was paying for his efforts.
Routh also gave agents a business card that claimed he was the director of a group called the International Volunteer Center.
The documents state that the agents referred Routh’s case to Homeland Security Investigations for further scrutiny but it declined to pursue the matter.
In congressional testimony Wednesday, Katrina Berger, executive associate director of the agency, noted that it gets hundreds of such requests a day and that Routh’s comments did not rise to the level to take him into “immediate custody.”
Asked specifically to confirm whether a further investigation was declined, she said she was not sure and would look into it.
Routh’s criminal history in his native Greensboro, North Carolina, includes a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.
In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. Police alleged in an affidavit that he was selling the items to purchase crack cocaine.
In both felony cases, court records show judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence, allowing him to escape prison time.
Tracy Fulk, a now-retired Greensboro police officer who arrested Routh in the long-ago armed standoff, said she was not surprised by last week’s news about Routh.
“Remembering all the alerts and run-ins and stuff,” she said, “he was kind of ‘out there.”‘
—Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker, Eric Tucker, Matthew Lee and Rebecca Santana in Washington; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu; Makiya Seminera in Greensboro, North Carolina; Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Joshua Goodman in Miami; and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
‘Ticking time bomb’: Those who raised suspicions about Trump suspect question if enough was done
"Ryan Routh is a ticking time bomb," Chelsea Walsh recalled telling U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in an hourlong interview.
US to seek attempted assassination charge against man accused of staking out Trump at golf course
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer
Published Sep 23, 2024 • Last updated 20 hours ago • 4 minute read
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man accused in the assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday.
Trump complained that the current holding charges against the man were too light, but prosecutors indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges were coming.
The new allegations about the note were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing Monday at which federal prosecutors argued that Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up as a flight risk and a threat to public safety. U.S. Magistrate Ryon McCabe agreed, saying the “weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong” and ordered him to stay behind bars.
The latest details were meant to bolster the Justice Department’s contention that the 58-year-old suspect had engaged in a premeditated plan to kill Trump, a plot officials say was thwarted by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing and then opened fire in Routh’s direction.
The note describing Routh’s plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after last Sunday’s arrest, prosecutors said.
The box also contained ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, tools, phones and various letters. The person who received the box and contacted law enforcement was not identified in the Justice Department’s detention memo and was described only as a “civilian witness.”
One note Routh left, addressed “Dear World,” appears to have been premised on the idea that the assassination attempt would be unsuccessful.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,” the note said, according to prosecutors.
The letter offers “substantial evidence of his intent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dispoto said in court Monday.
“That’s the message he wanted to send to the world in advance of this incident” he said.
In a statement, Trump accused the Justice Department of “mishandling and downplaying” the apparent assassination attempt by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”
Routh is currently charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. But Dispoto said in court Monday that prosecutors would pursue additional charges before a grand jury accusing him of having tried to “assassinate a major political candidate” — charges that would warrant life in prison in the event of a conviction.
It is common for prosecutors to file more easily provable charges as an immediate placeholder before adding more significant allegations as the case proceeds.
Trump also claimed that the Justice Department has a conflict of interest in prosecuting this case since, under the supervision of a special counsel, it is simultaneously pursuing cases charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He signaled support for a separate state-level criminal investigation announced last week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Kristy Militello, an assistant federal public defender representing Routh, asked during Monday’s hearing for Routh to be permitted to live with his sister in Greensboro, N.C., as the case moves forward. She argued that prosecutors had failed to show that he was a threat to the community and noted his track record of habitually showing up for court appearances throughout decades of legal troubles.
Besides the note, prosecutors also cited cellphone records indicating that Routh traveled to West Palm Beach from Greensboro in mid-August, and that he was near Trump’s golf club and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence “on multiple days and times” between Aug. 18 and the day of the apparent attempted assassination.
He was arrested Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man’s face, and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at him.
The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that was hanging from a chain link fence.
The FBI has previously said Routh had camped outside the golf course for 12 hours before his arrest. The Secret Service has said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight.
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched his car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
They also found a list with dates in August, September and October and venues where Trump had appeared or was scheduled to, according to prosecutors. A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
In addition, the detention memo cites a book authored by Routh last year in which he lambasted Trump’s approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump” for having left the nuclear deal.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer
Published Sep 23, 2024 • Last updated 20 hours ago • 4 minute read
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man accused in the assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday.
Trump complained that the current holding charges against the man were too light, but prosecutors indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges were coming.
The new allegations about the note were included in a detention memo filed ahead of a hearing Monday at which federal prosecutors argued that Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up as a flight risk and a threat to public safety. U.S. Magistrate Ryon McCabe agreed, saying the “weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong” and ordered him to stay behind bars.
The latest details were meant to bolster the Justice Department’s contention that the 58-year-old suspect had engaged in a premeditated plan to kill Trump, a plot officials say was thwarted by a Secret Service agent who spotted a rifle poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing and then opened fire in Routh’s direction.
The note describing Routh’s plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after last Sunday’s arrest, prosecutors said.
The box also contained ammunition, a metal pipe, building materials, tools, phones and various letters. The person who received the box and contacted law enforcement was not identified in the Justice Department’s detention memo and was described only as a “civilian witness.”
One note Routh left, addressed “Dear World,” appears to have been premised on the idea that the assassination attempt would be unsuccessful.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,” the note said, according to prosecutors.
The letter offers “substantial evidence of his intent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Dispoto said in court Monday.
“That’s the message he wanted to send to the world in advance of this incident” he said.
In a statement, Trump accused the Justice Department of “mishandling and downplaying” the apparent assassination attempt by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”
Routh is currently charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. But Dispoto said in court Monday that prosecutors would pursue additional charges before a grand jury accusing him of having tried to “assassinate a major political candidate” — charges that would warrant life in prison in the event of a conviction.
It is common for prosecutors to file more easily provable charges as an immediate placeholder before adding more significant allegations as the case proceeds.
Trump also claimed that the Justice Department has a conflict of interest in prosecuting this case since, under the supervision of a special counsel, it is simultaneously pursuing cases charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election and with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He signaled support for a separate state-level criminal investigation announced last week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Kristy Militello, an assistant federal public defender representing Routh, asked during Monday’s hearing for Routh to be permitted to live with his sister in Greensboro, N.C., as the case moves forward. She argued that prosecutors had failed to show that he was a threat to the community and noted his track record of habitually showing up for court appearances throughout decades of legal troubles.
Besides the note, prosecutors also cited cellphone records indicating that Routh traveled to West Palm Beach from Greensboro in mid-August, and that he was near Trump’s golf club and the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence “on multiple days and times” between Aug. 18 and the day of the apparent attempted assassination.
He was arrested Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man’s face, and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at him.
The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that was hanging from a chain link fence.
The FBI has previously said Routh had camped outside the golf course for 12 hours before his arrest. The Secret Service has said Routh did not fire any shots and never had Trump in his line of sight.
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched his car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
They also found a list with dates in August, September and October and venues where Trump had appeared or was scheduled to, according to prosecutors. A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
In addition, the detention memo cites a book authored by Routh last year in which he lambasted Trump’s approach to foreign policy, including in Ukraine. In the book, he wrote that Iran was “free to assassinate Trump” for having left the nuclear deal.
US to seek attempted assassination charge against man accused of staking out Trump at golf course
The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump wrote a note indicating his intent, the Justice Department disclosed.
Son of suspect in Trump assassination attempt arrested on child sexual abuse images charges
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Alanna Durkin Richer
Published Sep 24, 2024 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 2 minute read
WASHINGTON — The son of the man suspected in the assassination attempt in Florida against former president Donald Trump has been arrested on federal charges of possessing child sexual abuse images.
Oran Alexander Routh was arrested this week after authorities searched his Greensboro, North Carolina, home “in connection with an investigation unrelated to child exploitation,” and found hundreds of files depicting child sexual abuse, an FBI agent said in court papers.
Investigators who seized multiple electronic devices found videos sent to Oran Routh in July as well as chats from a messaging application commonly used by people who share child sexual abuse material, the FBI agent said.
He faces two charges of possessing and receiving child sexual abuse material and is expected to appear later Tuesday in federal court in North Carolina.
There was no attorney listed for Oran Routh in court papers. Phone messages left for relatives of Oran Routh were not immediately returned.
Oran Routh’s father, Ryan Wesley Routh, has been charged with federal gun offenses in connection to the attempted assassination at Trump’s Florida golf course earlier this month. Prosecutors have indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges are coming.
Oran Routh’s arrest was first reported Tuesday by ABC News.
A federal judge on Monday agreed with Justice Department prosecutors that Ryan Routh should remain locked up while he awaits trial in his case.
Prosecutors have said Ryan Routh left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear. The note describing Routh’s plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after Ryan Routh’s arrest, prosecutors said.
Ryan Routh is currently charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
But a prosecutor said in court Monday that they would pursue additional charges before a grand jury, accusing him of having tried to “assassinate a major political candidate” — charges that would warrant life in prison in the event of a conviction.
It is common for prosecutors to file more easily provable charges as an immediate placeholder before adding more significant allegations as the case proceeds.
Ryan Routh was arrested Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man’s face and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at the former president.
The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that was hanging from a chain-link fence.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Alanna Durkin Richer
Published Sep 24, 2024 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 2 minute read
WASHINGTON — The son of the man suspected in the assassination attempt in Florida against former president Donald Trump has been arrested on federal charges of possessing child sexual abuse images.
Oran Alexander Routh was arrested this week after authorities searched his Greensboro, North Carolina, home “in connection with an investigation unrelated to child exploitation,” and found hundreds of files depicting child sexual abuse, an FBI agent said in court papers.
Investigators who seized multiple electronic devices found videos sent to Oran Routh in July as well as chats from a messaging application commonly used by people who share child sexual abuse material, the FBI agent said.
He faces two charges of possessing and receiving child sexual abuse material and is expected to appear later Tuesday in federal court in North Carolina.
There was no attorney listed for Oran Routh in court papers. Phone messages left for relatives of Oran Routh were not immediately returned.
Oran Routh’s father, Ryan Wesley Routh, has been charged with federal gun offenses in connection to the attempted assassination at Trump’s Florida golf course earlier this month. Prosecutors have indicated much more serious attempted assassination charges are coming.
Oran Routh’s arrest was first reported Tuesday by ABC News.
A federal judge on Monday agreed with Justice Department prosecutors that Ryan Routh should remain locked up while he awaits trial in his case.
Prosecutors have said Ryan Routh left behind a note detailing his plans to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear. The note describing Routh’s plans was placed in a box that he dropped off months earlier at the home of an unidentified person who did not open it until after Ryan Routh’s arrest, prosecutors said.
Ryan Routh is currently charged with illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina, and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
But a prosecutor said in court Monday that they would pursue additional charges before a grand jury, accusing him of having tried to “assassinate a major political candidate” — charges that would warrant life in prison in the event of a conviction.
It is common for prosecutors to file more easily provable charges as an immediate placeholder before adding more significant allegations as the case proceeds.
Ryan Routh was arrested Sept. 15 after a Secret Service agent who was scoping the Trump International Golf Club for potential security threats saw a partially obscured man’s face and the barrel of a semiautomatic rifle, aimed directly at the former president.
The agent fired at Routh, who sped away before being stopped by officials in a neighboring county, leaving behind a loaded rifle, digital camera, a backpack and a reusable shopping bag that was hanging from a chain-link fence.
FBI: Son of suspect in Trump assassination attempt arrested on child sexual abuse images charges
Oran Routh has been arrested on charges of possessing child sexual abuse images.
Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker And Curt Anderson
Published Sep 24, 2024 • Last updated 12 hours ago • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who authorities say staked out Donald Trump for 12 hours on his golf course in Florida and wrote of his desire to kill him was indicted Tuesday on an attempted assassination charge.
Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offences. The upgraded charges contained in a five-count indictment reflect the Justice Department’s assessment that he methodically plotted to kill the Republican nominee, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course on an afternoon Trump was playing on it. Routh left behind a note in which he described his intention, prosecutors said.
Court records show the case has been assigned to Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge who generated intense scrutiny for her handling of a criminal case charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She dismissed that case in July, a decision now being appealed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
The attempted assassination indictment had been foreshadowed during a court hearing Monday in which prosecutors successfully argued for the 58-year-old Routh to remain behind bars as a flight risk and a threat to public safety.
They alleged that he had written of his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his Sept. 15 arrest in which he referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 for anyone who could “finish the job.” That note was in a box that Routh had apparently dropped off at the home of an unidentified witness months before his arrest.
After the attempted assassination, the person opened the box, took a photograph of the front page of the letter — addressed “Dear World” — and contacted law enforcement.
Prosecutors also said Routh kept in his car a handwritten list of venues at which Trump had appeared or was expected to be present in August, September and October.
The charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate carries a potential life sentence in the event of a conviction. Other charges in the indictment include assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and the two original firearms charges he faced last week.
The potential shooting was thwarted when a member of Trump’s Secret Service protective detail spotted a partially obscured man’s face and a rifle barrel protruding through the golf course fence line, ahead of where Trump was playing. The agent fired in the direction of Routh, who sped away and was stopped by law enforcement in a neighbouring county.
Routh did not fire any rounds and did not have Trump in his line of sight, officials have said. He left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food.
The arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said that security worked as it should have to thwart a potential attack in Florida.
The initial charges Routh faced in a criminal complaint accused him of illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It is common for prosecutors to bring preliminary and easily provable charges upon an arrest and then add more serious offences later as the investigation develops.
The FBI had said at the outset that it was investigating the episode as an apparent assassination attempt, but the absence of an immediate charge to that effect opened the door for Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to announce his own state-level investigation that he said could produce more serious charges.
Trump, seeking to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the investigation and the Justice Department more broadly, complained Monday — before the attempted assassination charge was brought _ that federal prosecutors were “mishandling and downplaying” the case by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”
Asked Tuesday at an unrelated press conference about Trump’s criticism, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “would spare no resources to ensure accountability” in the case.
“All of our top priority should be ensuring that accountability occurs in this case and that those who run for office and their families are safe and protected,” Garland said.
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched Routh’s car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
In addition, prosecutors have cited a book authored by Routh last year in which he la
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker And Curt Anderson
Published Sep 24, 2024 • Last updated 12 hours ago • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who authorities say staked out Donald Trump for 12 hours on his golf course in Florida and wrote of his desire to kill him was indicted Tuesday on an attempted assassination charge.
Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offences. The upgraded charges contained in a five-count indictment reflect the Justice Department’s assessment that he methodically plotted to kill the Republican nominee, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course on an afternoon Trump was playing on it. Routh left behind a note in which he described his intention, prosecutors said.
Court records show the case has been assigned to Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge who generated intense scrutiny for her handling of a criminal case charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She dismissed that case in July, a decision now being appealed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
The attempted assassination indictment had been foreshadowed during a court hearing Monday in which prosecutors successfully argued for the 58-year-old Routh to remain behind bars as a flight risk and a threat to public safety.
They alleged that he had written of his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his Sept. 15 arrest in which he referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 for anyone who could “finish the job.” That note was in a box that Routh had apparently dropped off at the home of an unidentified witness months before his arrest.
After the attempted assassination, the person opened the box, took a photograph of the front page of the letter — addressed “Dear World” — and contacted law enforcement.
Prosecutors also said Routh kept in his car a handwritten list of venues at which Trump had appeared or was expected to be present in August, September and October.
The charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate carries a potential life sentence in the event of a conviction. Other charges in the indictment include assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and the two original firearms charges he faced last week.
The potential shooting was thwarted when a member of Trump’s Secret Service protective detail spotted a partially obscured man’s face and a rifle barrel protruding through the golf course fence line, ahead of where Trump was playing. The agent fired in the direction of Routh, who sped away and was stopped by law enforcement in a neighbouring county.
Routh did not fire any rounds and did not have Trump in his line of sight, officials have said. He left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food.
The arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said that security worked as it should have to thwart a potential attack in Florida.
The initial charges Routh faced in a criminal complaint accused him of illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It is common for prosecutors to bring preliminary and easily provable charges upon an arrest and then add more serious offences later as the investigation develops.
The FBI had said at the outset that it was investigating the episode as an apparent assassination attempt, but the absence of an immediate charge to that effect opened the door for Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to announce his own state-level investigation that he said could produce more serious charges.
Trump, seeking to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the investigation and the Justice Department more broadly, complained Monday — before the attempted assassination charge was brought _ that federal prosecutors were “mishandling and downplaying” the case by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”
Asked Tuesday at an unrelated press conference about Trump’s criticism, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “would spare no resources to ensure accountability” in the case.
“All of our top priority should be ensuring that accountability occurs in this case and that those who run for office and their families are safe and protected,” Garland said.
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched Routh’s car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
In addition, prosecutors have cited a book authored by Routh last year in which he la
Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination
Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offenses.
i will post an update if they fix the mistake.Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Eric Tucker And Curt Anderson
Published Sep 24, 2024 • Last updated 12 hours ago • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who authorities say staked out Donald Trump for 12 hours on his golf course in Florida and wrote of his desire to kill him was indicted Tuesday on an attempted assassination charge.
Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offences. The upgraded charges contained in a five-count indictment reflect the Justice Department’s assessment that he methodically plotted to kill the Republican nominee, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course on an afternoon Trump was playing on it. Routh left behind a note in which he described his intention, prosecutors said.
Court records show the case has been assigned to Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed federal judge who generated intense scrutiny for her handling of a criminal case charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She dismissed that case in July, a decision now being appealed by special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
The attempted assassination indictment had been foreshadowed during a court hearing Monday in which prosecutors successfully argued for the 58-year-old Routh to remain behind bars as a flight risk and a threat to public safety.
They alleged that he had written of his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note months before his Sept. 15 arrest in which he referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 for anyone who could “finish the job.” That note was in a box that Routh had apparently dropped off at the home of an unidentified witness months before his arrest.
After the attempted assassination, the person opened the box, took a photograph of the front page of the letter — addressed “Dear World” — and contacted law enforcement.
Prosecutors also said Routh kept in his car a handwritten list of venues at which Trump had appeared or was expected to be present in August, September and October.
The charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate carries a potential life sentence in the event of a conviction. Other charges in the indictment include assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and the two original firearms charges he faced last week.
The potential shooting was thwarted when a member of Trump’s Secret Service protective detail spotted a partially obscured man’s face and a rifle barrel protruding through the golf course fence line, ahead of where Trump was playing. The agent fired in the direction of Routh, who sped away and was stopped by law enforcement in a neighbouring county.
Routh did not fire any rounds and did not have Trump in his line of sight, officials have said. He left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food.
The arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said that security worked as it should have to thwart a potential attack in Florida.
The initial charges Routh faced in a criminal complaint accused him of illegally possessing his gun in spite of multiple felony convictions and with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It is common for prosecutors to bring preliminary and easily provable charges upon an arrest and then add more serious offences later as the investigation develops.
The FBI had said at the outset that it was investigating the episode as an apparent assassination attempt, but the absence of an immediate charge to that effect opened the door for Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to announce his own state-level investigation that he said could produce more serious charges.
Trump, seeking to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the investigation and the Justice Department more broadly, complained Monday — before the attempted assassination charge was brought _ that federal prosecutors were “mishandling and downplaying” the case by bringing charges that were a “slap on the wrist.”
Asked Tuesday at an unrelated press conference about Trump’s criticism, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “would spare no resources to ensure accountability” in the case.
“All of our top priority should be ensuring that accountability occurs in this case and that those who run for office and their families are safe and protected,” Garland said.
The Justice Department also said Monday that authorities who searched Routh’s car found six cellphones, including one that showed a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.
A notebook found in his car was filled with criticism of the Russian and Chinese governments and notes about how to join the war on behalf of Ukraine.
In addition, prosecutors have cited a book authored by Routh last year in which he la
Man who staked out Trump at Florida golf course charged with attempting an assassination
Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offenses.
Last edited:
Secret Service failures before Trump rally shooting were ’preventable,’ Senate panel finds
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Mary Clare Jalonick And Rebecca Santana
Published Sep 25, 2024 • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former president Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day,” according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.
Similar to the agency’s own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, the interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources.
“The consequences of those failures were dire,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel.
Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan for coverage of the building where the shooter climbed up to fire the shots. Officials were operating on multiple, separate radio channels, leading to missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a help line after his equipment wasn’t working correctly.
Communications among security officials were a “multi-step game of telephone,” Peters said.
The report found the Secret Service was notified about an individual on the roof of the building approximately two minutes before shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was struck in the ear by a bullet or a bullet fragment in the assassination attempt, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Approximately 22 seconds before Crooks fired, the report found, a local officer sent a radio alert that there was an armed individual on the building. But that information was not relayed to key Secret Service personnel who were interviewed by Senate investigators.
The panel also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing officers with their guns drawn running toward the building where the shooter was perched, but the person said they did not think to notify anyone to get Trump off the stage.
The Senate report comes just days after the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be finalized Secret Service report on what went wrong, and ahead of a Thursday hearing that will be held by a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting. The House panel is also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month when Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club.
In a statement Wednesday, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency had already implemented some of the committee’s suggestions and vowed to work transparently with Congress and other oversight bodies investigating the July 13th shooting. He said the agency had already raised Trump’s security to the “highest level of protection that the U.S. Secret Service can provide.”
“We are also diligently examining long-term solutions to challenges such as enhancing communications and interoperability with our federal, state and local partners to make sure our coordinated efforts during protective events are seamless,” he said.
Each investigation has found new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say there is much more they want to find out as they try to prevent it from happening again.
“This was the result of multiple human failures of the Secret Service,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel.
The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protective event, including by designating a single individual in charge of approving all the security plans. Investigators found that many of the people in charge denied that they had responsibility for planning or security failures, and deflected blame.
Advance agents interviewed by the committee said “that planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval,” the report said.
Communication with local authorities was also poor. Local law enforcement had raised concern two days earlier about security coverage of the building where the shooter perched, telling Secret Service agents during a walk through that they did not have the manpower to lock it down. Secret Service agents then gave investigators conflicting accounts about who was responsible for that security coverage, the report said.
The internal review released last week by the Secret Service also detailed multiple communications breakdowns, including an absence of clear guidance to local law enforcement and the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and “complacency” among some agents.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director, after the report was released.
In addition to better defining responsibility for events, the senators recommended that the agency completely overhaul its communications operations at protective events and improve intelligence sharing. They also recommended that Congress evaluate whether more resources are needed.
Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on whether to give the Secret Service more money in the wake of its failures. A spending bill on track to pass before the end of the month includes an additional $231 million for the agency, but many Republicans have said that an internal overhaul is needed first.
“This is a management problem plain and simple,” said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Homeland panel’s investigations subcommittee.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Mary Clare Jalonick And Rebecca Santana
Published Sep 25, 2024 • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former president Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day,” according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.
Similar to the agency’s own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, the interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources.
“The consequences of those failures were dire,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel.
Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan for coverage of the building where the shooter climbed up to fire the shots. Officials were operating on multiple, separate radio channels, leading to missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a help line after his equipment wasn’t working correctly.
Communications among security officials were a “multi-step game of telephone,” Peters said.
The report found the Secret Service was notified about an individual on the roof of the building approximately two minutes before shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was struck in the ear by a bullet or a bullet fragment in the assassination attempt, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Approximately 22 seconds before Crooks fired, the report found, a local officer sent a radio alert that there was an armed individual on the building. But that information was not relayed to key Secret Service personnel who were interviewed by Senate investigators.
The panel also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing officers with their guns drawn running toward the building where the shooter was perched, but the person said they did not think to notify anyone to get Trump off the stage.
The Senate report comes just days after the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be finalized Secret Service report on what went wrong, and ahead of a Thursday hearing that will be held by a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting. The House panel is also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month when Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club.
In a statement Wednesday, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency had already implemented some of the committee’s suggestions and vowed to work transparently with Congress and other oversight bodies investigating the July 13th shooting. He said the agency had already raised Trump’s security to the “highest level of protection that the U.S. Secret Service can provide.”
“We are also diligently examining long-term solutions to challenges such as enhancing communications and interoperability with our federal, state and local partners to make sure our coordinated efforts during protective events are seamless,” he said.
Each investigation has found new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say there is much more they want to find out as they try to prevent it from happening again.
“This was the result of multiple human failures of the Secret Service,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel.
The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protective event, including by designating a single individual in charge of approving all the security plans. Investigators found that many of the people in charge denied that they had responsibility for planning or security failures, and deflected blame.
Advance agents interviewed by the committee said “that planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval,” the report said.
Communication with local authorities was also poor. Local law enforcement had raised concern two days earlier about security coverage of the building where the shooter perched, telling Secret Service agents during a walk through that they did not have the manpower to lock it down. Secret Service agents then gave investigators conflicting accounts about who was responsible for that security coverage, the report said.
The internal review released last week by the Secret Service also detailed multiple communications breakdowns, including an absence of clear guidance to local law enforcement and the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and “complacency” among some agents.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director, after the report was released.
In addition to better defining responsibility for events, the senators recommended that the agency completely overhaul its communications operations at protective events and improve intelligence sharing. They also recommended that Congress evaluate whether more resources are needed.
Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on whether to give the Secret Service more money in the wake of its failures. A spending bill on track to pass before the end of the month includes an additional $231 million for the agency, but many Republicans have said that an internal overhaul is needed first.
“This is a management problem plain and simple,” said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Homeland panel’s investigations subcommittee.
Secret Service failures before Trump rally shooting were ’preventable,’ Senate panel finds
Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were "foreseeable" and "preventable."
Secret Service failures before Trump rally shooting were ’preventable,’ Senate panel finds
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Mary Clare Jalonick And Rebecca Santana
Published Sep 25, 2024 • 4 minute read
WASHINGTON — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former president Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day,” according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.
Similar to the agency’s own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, the interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources.
“The consequences of those failures were dire,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel.
Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan for coverage of the building where the shooter climbed up to fire the shots. Officials were operating on multiple, separate radio channels, leading to missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a help line after his equipment wasn’t working correctly.
Communications among security officials were a “multi-step game of telephone,” Peters said.
The report found the Secret Service was notified about an individual on the roof of the building approximately two minutes before shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was struck in the ear by a bullet or a bullet fragment in the assassination attempt, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Approximately 22 seconds before Crooks fired, the report found, a local officer sent a radio alert that there was an armed individual on the building. But that information was not relayed to key Secret Service personnel who were interviewed by Senate investigators.
The panel also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing officers with their guns drawn running toward the building where the shooter was perched, but the person said they did not think to notify anyone to get Trump off the stage.
The Senate report comes just days after the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be finalized Secret Service report on what went wrong, and ahead of a Thursday hearing that will be held by a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting. The House panel is also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month when Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club.
In a statement Wednesday, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency had already implemented some of the committee’s suggestions and vowed to work transparently with Congress and other oversight bodies investigating the July 13th shooting. He said the agency had already raised Trump’s security to the “highest level of protection that the U.S. Secret Service can provide.”
“We are also diligently examining long-term solutions to challenges such as enhancing communications and interoperability with our federal, state and local partners to make sure our coordinated efforts during protective events are seamless,” he said.
Each investigation has found new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say there is much more they want to find out as they try to prevent it from happening again.
“This was the result of multiple human failures of the Secret Service,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel.
The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protective event, including by designating a single individual in charge of approving all the security plans. Investigators found that many of the people in charge denied that they had responsibility for planning or security failures, and deflected blame.
Advance agents interviewed by the committee said “that planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval,” the report said.
Communication with local authorities was also poor. Local law enforcement had raised concern two days earlier about security coverage of the building where the shooter perched, telling Secret Service agents during a walk through that they did not have the manpower to lock it down. Secret Service agents then gave investigators conflicting accounts about who was responsible for that security coverage, the report said.
The internal review released last week by the Secret Service also detailed multiple communications breakdowns, including an absence of clear guidance to local law enforcement and the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and “complacency” among some agents.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director, after the report was released.
In addition to better defining responsibility for events, the senators recommended that the agency completely overhaul its communications operations at protective events and improve intelligence sharing. They also recommended that Congress evaluate whether more resources are needed.
Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on whether to give the Secret Service more money in the wake of its failures. A spending bill on track to pass before the end of the month includes an additional $231 million for the agency, but many Republicans have said that an internal overhaul is needed first.
“This is a management problem plain and simple,” said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Homeland panel’s investigations subcommittee.
Secret Service failures before Trump rally shooting were ’preventable,’ Senate panel finds
Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were "foreseeable" and "preventable."
Hearing on Trump assassination attempts says Pennsylvania failure was by Secret Service
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Farnoush Amiri, Rebecca Santana and Colleen Long
Published Sep 26, 2024 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 5 minute read
WASHINGTON — Members of a bipartisan House task force investigating the Trump assassination attempts emphasized during their first hearing Thursday that the Secret Service, not local authorities, was responsible for the failures in planning and communications that led to a gunman being able to open fire on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers repeatedly questioned why the agency tasked with protecting the country’s top leaders didn’t do a better job communicating with local authorities during the July 13 rally, particularly when it came to securing the building that was widely agreed to be a security threat but that ultimately was left so unprotected that gunman Thomas Michael Crooks was able to climb up and open fire on Trump.
“In the days leading up to the rally, it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite group of security professionals. There were security failures on multiple fronts,” said the Republican co-chair of the committee, Rep. Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania.
“It is also clear, however, that the communication between the Secret Service and local and state partners was disjointed and unclear,” said Rep. Jason Crow, the ranking Democrat on the panel, who also praised the local law enforcement.
Trump was wounded and a man attending the rally with his family was killed.
The panel — comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats _ has spent the last two months analyzing the security failures at the rally, conducting nearly two dozen interviews with law enforcement and receiving more than 2,800 pages of documents from the Secret Service.
The lawmakers are also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump that happened earlier this month where a man with a rifle sought to assassinate the GOP presidential nominee while he was playing golf at one of his golf courses in southern Florida.
But the hearing Thursday largely focused on the rally shooting with testimony from Pennsylvania and Butler County police officials.
The Secret Service often relies on local authorities to secure bigger events where protectees like Trump appear around the country. But after the Butler rally, the agency was heavily criticized for failing to clearly communicate what it needed from those local agencies that day.
One key question has been why there were no law enforcement personnel on top of the AGR building where Crooks eventually climbed up and took his shots, considering that it was so close to the rally stage and afforded a clear line of sight to Trump.
“A 10-year old looking at that satellite image could have seen that the greatest threat posed to the president that day” was the building near the stage, said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas.
Edward Lenz, commander for the Butler County Emergency Services Unit who was in charge of the local tactical units operating at the Butler rally, said his agency was never asked to put a sniper team on top of the roof and never said that they would. Lenz said the Secret Service knew their shooters were inside the AGR Building and there was no “feedback or guidance” from the Secret Service that they wanted the team anywhere else.
“They knew where we would be,” Lenz said. “They knew what our plan was.”
Lenz also testified that Secret Service officials did not check with him or his team to make sure they were in place before Trump went on stage and that the emergency communication for July 13 had not been worked out in advance.
Drew Blasko, an assistant team leader of the sniper unit within the Butler Township Emergency Services Unit, testified that he shared his concerns about the building with the Secret Service ahead of the rally and said his team didn’t have the manpower to post anyone there. He said he asked the Secret Service that additional people be posted there and was told “that they would take care of it.”
Some of the witnesses also said that there had been discussions ahead of time about using opaque screens or large farm equipment to block the line of sight to the stage, but it’s not clear what happened to those suggestions.
Lawmakers struggled in their questioning Thursday to get witnesses to zero in on a single individual or moment that led to the assassination attempt. Local police officials and a retired Secret Service agent also testifying instead pointed to a series of incidents and mistakes that ultimately allowed Crooks to remain undeterred for a prolonged period of time and eventually take his shot at the former president.
“Communication was totally lacking here,” said Rep. Correa, a Democrat from California. “What went wrong? Who’s in charge?”
Thursday’s session was the fourth congressional hearing about the Butler shooting since July. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned one day after she appeared before a congressional hearing where she was berated for hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the agency’s security failures.
Cheatle called the Pennsylvania attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, but she angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation.
An interim report Wednesday from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is also conducting an investigation, said the Secret Service failed to give clear instructions on how state and local officials should cover the building where the gunman eventually took up position. The report also said the agency didn’t make sure it could share information with local partners in real-time.
The Secret Service has also released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be-finalized agency report on what went wrong in Butler. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe has said that the agency is ultimately responsible for what happened, and during a news conference last week to announce the results of that report he cited complacency by the agency’s staff and said that they needed to do a better job communicating with local and state officials.
The House panel is expected to propose a series of legislative reforms and issue its own final report before Dec. 13.
While the oversight investigations have been bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on whether to give the Secret Service more money in the wake of its failures. A government funding bill that passed Wednesday includes an additional $231 million for the agency, even though many Republicans were skeptical and said an internal overhaul of the Secret Service is needed.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Farnoush Amiri, Rebecca Santana and Colleen Long
Published Sep 26, 2024 • Last updated 23 hours ago • 5 minute read
WASHINGTON — Members of a bipartisan House task force investigating the Trump assassination attempts emphasized during their first hearing Thursday that the Secret Service, not local authorities, was responsible for the failures in planning and communications that led to a gunman being able to open fire on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers repeatedly questioned why the agency tasked with protecting the country’s top leaders didn’t do a better job communicating with local authorities during the July 13 rally, particularly when it came to securing the building that was widely agreed to be a security threat but that ultimately was left so unprotected that gunman Thomas Michael Crooks was able to climb up and open fire on Trump.
“In the days leading up to the rally, it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite group of security professionals. There were security failures on multiple fronts,” said the Republican co-chair of the committee, Rep. Mike Kelly from Pennsylvania.
“It is also clear, however, that the communication between the Secret Service and local and state partners was disjointed and unclear,” said Rep. Jason Crow, the ranking Democrat on the panel, who also praised the local law enforcement.
Trump was wounded and a man attending the rally with his family was killed.
The panel — comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats _ has spent the last two months analyzing the security failures at the rally, conducting nearly two dozen interviews with law enforcement and receiving more than 2,800 pages of documents from the Secret Service.
The lawmakers are also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump that happened earlier this month where a man with a rifle sought to assassinate the GOP presidential nominee while he was playing golf at one of his golf courses in southern Florida.
But the hearing Thursday largely focused on the rally shooting with testimony from Pennsylvania and Butler County police officials.
The Secret Service often relies on local authorities to secure bigger events where protectees like Trump appear around the country. But after the Butler rally, the agency was heavily criticized for failing to clearly communicate what it needed from those local agencies that day.
One key question has been why there were no law enforcement personnel on top of the AGR building where Crooks eventually climbed up and took his shots, considering that it was so close to the rally stage and afforded a clear line of sight to Trump.
“A 10-year old looking at that satellite image could have seen that the greatest threat posed to the president that day” was the building near the stage, said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas.
Edward Lenz, commander for the Butler County Emergency Services Unit who was in charge of the local tactical units operating at the Butler rally, said his agency was never asked to put a sniper team on top of the roof and never said that they would. Lenz said the Secret Service knew their shooters were inside the AGR Building and there was no “feedback or guidance” from the Secret Service that they wanted the team anywhere else.
“They knew where we would be,” Lenz said. “They knew what our plan was.”
Lenz also testified that Secret Service officials did not check with him or his team to make sure they were in place before Trump went on stage and that the emergency communication for July 13 had not been worked out in advance.
Drew Blasko, an assistant team leader of the sniper unit within the Butler Township Emergency Services Unit, testified that he shared his concerns about the building with the Secret Service ahead of the rally and said his team didn’t have the manpower to post anyone there. He said he asked the Secret Service that additional people be posted there and was told “that they would take care of it.”
Some of the witnesses also said that there had been discussions ahead of time about using opaque screens or large farm equipment to block the line of sight to the stage, but it’s not clear what happened to those suggestions.
Lawmakers struggled in their questioning Thursday to get witnesses to zero in on a single individual or moment that led to the assassination attempt. Local police officials and a retired Secret Service agent also testifying instead pointed to a series of incidents and mistakes that ultimately allowed Crooks to remain undeterred for a prolonged period of time and eventually take his shot at the former president.
“Communication was totally lacking here,” said Rep. Correa, a Democrat from California. “What went wrong? Who’s in charge?”
Thursday’s session was the fourth congressional hearing about the Butler shooting since July. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned one day after she appeared before a congressional hearing where she was berated for hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the agency’s security failures.
Cheatle called the Pennsylvania attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, but she angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation.
An interim report Wednesday from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is also conducting an investigation, said the Secret Service failed to give clear instructions on how state and local officials should cover the building where the gunman eventually took up position. The report also said the agency didn’t make sure it could share information with local partners in real-time.
The Secret Service has also released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be-finalized agency report on what went wrong in Butler. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe has said that the agency is ultimately responsible for what happened, and during a news conference last week to announce the results of that report he cited complacency by the agency’s staff and said that they needed to do a better job communicating with local and state officials.
The House panel is expected to propose a series of legislative reforms and issue its own final report before Dec. 13.
While the oversight investigations have been bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on whether to give the Secret Service more money in the wake of its failures. A government funding bill that passed Wednesday includes an additional $231 million for the agency, even though many Republicans were skeptical and said an internal overhaul of the Secret Service is needed.
Hearing on Trump assassination attempts says Pennsylvania failure was by Secret Service
Members of a bipartisan House panel investigating the Trump assassination attempts suggested that the failures were with the Secret Service.