Police cite communication failures with Secret Service on day of Trump assassination attempt

Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Local law enforcement officials testified Thursday they were left in the dark while trying to communicate with the Secret Service before, during and after the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pa.

Witnesses including Sgt. Edward Lenz of the Butler County, Pa., Emergency Services Unit, Patrolman Drew Blasko of the Butler Township Police Department  and Lt. John Herold of the Pennsylvania State Police told members of a bipartisan House task force about the problems they encountered while working with the Secret Service in providing security for the former president's outdoor rally.

Their comments came during the first hearing of the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump , co-chaired by Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., whose preliminary findings have squarely laid blame for the security lapses at the Butler Farm Show grounds on the Secret Service.

Even as the hearing was underway, Trump's campaign announced the Republican nominee would hold another rally at the site Oct. 5, nearly three months after the assassination attempt that wounded Trump's ear and left one man dead and other attendees hurt.

The task force co-chairmen noted they have already held multiple meetings with law enforcement officials, conducted nearly two dozen transcribed interviews and have reviewed more than 2,800 pages of documents obtained from the Secret Service.

Task Force members also made an official visit to the grounds last month where they met with local law enforcement officials to discuss the assassination attempt.

In his opening statement, Kelly said the findings have so far identified three "key factors" in the security breakdown that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to "outmaneuver one of our country's most elite group of security professionals," gain unimpeded access to a rooftop adjacent to the rally site and fire shots at Trump before being killed by Secret Service snipers.

"First, Secret Service planning, or perhaps more accurately, their failure to adequately plan, created confusion among the agency's law enforcement partners," he said. "The Secret Service was not assertive on key decisions like the placement of some units and delegating responsibilities."

Second, Kelly said the agency "did not close down public access or manage access to the grounds next to the rally site that were less that 150 yards from the stage where former President Trump spoke."

Finally, he said the panel's investigation has found that "security communications and command structure was not cohesive. It did not allow for rapid decision-making. Information in a moment of crisis went through radio communications, text messages and phone calls way too slowly."

Lenz testified that his unit was not asked by the Secret Service to secure the American Glass Research, or AGR, building where the shooter was perched.

"At no point during the planning process was Butler County asked to secure the AGR complex, nor the perimeter surrounding that area," he said.

"At no point during the planning process was Butler ESU asked to deploy a sniper team to the roof of the AGR complex, and at no point in our operations plan did we ever say we would deploy a sniper team to the roof of the AGR complex."

Meanwhile, Herold, of the Pennsylvania State Police, similarly testified that state law enforcement was not asked to secure the rooftop, saying, "The AGR building was never discussed" with the Secret Service in advance of the rally.

The task force's hearing came a day after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is also investigating the assassination attempt, released a 133-page report detailing what it called a series of "shocking" problems with the Secret Service's July 13 efforts ranging from "planning missteps, to the siloed and flawed communication to the lack of effective coordination between law enforcement, to the breakdowns in technology."

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said last week the agency's own investigation into the assassination attempt has revealed "clear failures" in its own operations and said it has instituted a "paradigm shift" to address the problems.