Secret Service knew of threat to Trump but still let him take stage, lawmakers hear

The Secret Service knew there was a threat to former President Donald Trump last weekend but still let him take the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, lawmakers revealed Wednesday.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said the suspect, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was flagged as suspicious more than an hour before he ultimately fired on Trump from a nearby rooftop.

“He was identified as a character of suspicion because [he had] a rangefinder as well as a backpack. And this was over an hour before the shooting actually occurred,” Barrasso told Fox News . A source familiar with the call told the Washington Examiner the precise lead time mentioned was 62 minutes.

“So, you would think over the course of that hour, you shouldn't lose sight of the individual. Somebody ought to be following up on those sorts of things," Barrasso added. "No evidence of that happening at all.”

The Secret Service was aware of the threat about 10 minutes before Trump walked onstage, and an agent who was in charge was on the phone with police about the threat as the shooting took place, a source told the Washington Examiner. It is unclear how much time elapsed between when the threat was first identified and when the information was relayed to the Secret Service. Trump was shot approximately six minutes into his speech.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) posted on X, "They had identified the shooter as 'suspicious' a full 19 minutes before the shooting."

Shortly after the call, Republicans such as Lee and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) called on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to "step down immediately." Lee said the briefing was "(mostly) information free."

"What little information she gave us was at once deeply troubling and glaringly incomplete," he said.

Meanwhile, senators including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said the Secret Service ended the call abruptly, with only four questions answered.

“I found it infuriating,” Johnson told the Washington Examiner, adding that senators were referred to the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI with further questions.

“It was the same, old bureaucratic gobbledygook,” he added.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), one of the senators who asked a question, left the call doubting that “those at the USSS are up to the task,” according to a spokesperson.

He is one of a number of senior Senate Republicans losing confidence in the Secret Service director. Members of leadership including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Barrasso, and Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) echoed the calls for Cheatle to step down .

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The shooting at the rally killed one attendee, Corey Comperatore, 50, and injured Trump and two other attendees.

Multiple questions have been raised as to how Crooks was able to take up his position on a roof 150 yards away from Trump and open fire. He fired about eight shots before being killed by a Secret Service sniper team. The Secret Service and FBI are undergoing six investigations and follow-up investigations into security failures.