Donald Trump assassination attempt in Pennsylvania (archive photo)
WASHINGTON: The U.S. Secret Service did not receive 102 local radio broadcasts about the gunman who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump during a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a government watchdog report released Thursday.The agency was not aware of the transmissions on July 13, 2024, because it failed to establish a joint communications room with local law enforcement, which was receiving reports about the search for a suspicious person later identified as Thomas Crooks, according to a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report. “Instead, we found that the Secret Service received only five phone calls and three text messages about Crocs,” the report notes.
“As a result, Secret Service members did not alert President Trump’s protective detail about concerns of a suspicious person.”The recommendations in the Inspector General’s report covered areas such as information sharing and addressing “line-of-sight vulnerabilities” before events. The Secret Service said it agreed with the inspector general’s recommendations. A spokesperson for the organization said: “Many of these recommendations have already been identified… and have since been implemented as part of our reform efforts.”(This is a Reuters report)