(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Many have blamed the July 13 Trump shooting on the fact that Secret Service and local law enforcement couldn’t communicate with each other due to differing radio systems.
“It was so apparent to me that in this incident, in the final 30 seconds which has been the focus of what happened before the assailant opened fire, there was clearly radio transmissions that may have happened on that local radio net that we did not have,” Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe said at an Aug. 2 press conference.
“The interoperability challenge, it’s not an easy fix. It’s not as simple as just trying to figure out the local frequency of the agency you’re working with, and then typing that into your radio network. It requires a substantial technical fix.”
But according to findings from Rep. Clay Higgins, local police offered Secret Service radios—but the agency’s snipers never retrieved them. Higgins, who’s on the House Task Force to investigate the Trump shooting, released “preliminary findings” on his investigation Thursday.
Secret Service has blamed a lack of interoperability for not knowing about Crooks on the rooftop.
Setting aside how shitty of an excuse that is, Clay Higgins says the locals PERSONALLY reminded the SS snipers to pick up their radios the day before the rally. The snipers never… pic.twitter.com/Zw6zO2D3uQ— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 16, 2024
“USSS did not retrieve the radios that had been set aside for them by Butler County tactical command. The radio comms were properly and perfectly arranged during the extensive pre mission planning,” said the congressman, who’s a former law enforcement officer.
“On J12, the Butler County ESU Commander personally reminded the USSS counter-sniper teams to pick up their assigned radios at the ESU Command Post RV, which was positioned according to planning at the Butler Fairgrounds, the following morning before 1100 hrs. It didn’t happen.”
Higgins’s comments were similar to those made by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., to Fox News on July 28.
“We also have it confirmed that the radios that local law enforcement gave the Secret Service sniper teams were never used by the Secret Service,” Johnson said, as reported by Blaze Media.
Even without the local radios, the Secret Service’s inability to shoot at Crooks until 15 seconds after he opened fire begs questions. According to rallygoer Jon Malis, the Secret Service was monitoring the rooftop used by alleged shooter Thomas Crooks for at least 20 seconds before he opened fire.
“My wife was actually filming the area where Donald Trump was speaking, and she could see the Secret Service were talking to each other, and they started moving quickly towards the building. And the Secret Service snipers changed their focus from us to the rooftop,” Malis told News Nation in an interview published Thursday. “Maybe 20 seconds after that is when the first shots rang out.”
Malis’s claim was further supported the Washington Post, which reported that the Secret Service’s command post was notified by 6:09 p.m.—two minutes before the shooting—that Crooks was on the rooftop.
According to the Post, a local Butler officer radioed Sgt. Ed Lenz, the tactical commander for the Butler County mobile unit, command at 6:08 p.m.
“Someone’s on the roof,” a local officer radioed at 6:08 p.m., according to the Post, which said it’s obtained a time-stamped transcript of encrypted radio communications. “I have someone on the roof with white shorts.”
Lenz then reportedly relayed that information to a state trooper in the separate Secret Service command center a minute later. Crooks began firing two minutes after that at 6:11 p.m.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
