(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the wake of the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, whistleblower disclosures revealed that at least 16 Homeland Security Investigations agents were working security that day. Critics say the HSI agents didn’t have the same training as their Secret Service counterparts, which may have been part of the reason why there were so many security failures.
What hasn’t been reported until now is the fact that the HSI agents were led by a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Moreover, according to interview transcripts, this FBI JTTF member made crucial mistakes leading up to the Trump shooting—including diverting another agent away from his search for the suspicious person with a rangefinder, who later turned out to be Trump’s would-be assassin.
The revelations about an FBI JTTF member working at Butler were included in the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s interview with the Secret Service “protective intelligence agent,” a transcript of which was released Sunday. In the interview, the agent, who isn’t named, talked about her background with congressional investigators—revealing her JTTF domestic terrorism credentials.
“In 2022, I was assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the FBI in the Domestic Terrorism Squad. I left the Phoenix Field Office in August of 2024, and transferred [REDACTED],” said the protective intelligence agent, a veteran of some 21 years with the Secret Service.
What if I told you that the leader of the HSI agents at Butler was a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in PHOENIX, ARIZONA?
STORY BELOW 🧵 https://t.co/TdRdEuP01h pic.twitter.com/bktZU5xsue
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) July 18, 2025
The agent said she wasn’t working at Butler in her capacity as a JTTF member. Rather, she was leading the “jump team” of HSI agents, along with performing the duties of a protective intelligence agent—someone who investigates possible threats.
“HSI special agents were used to supplement Secret Service for post-standing assignments. So my role for the campaign would be for a three-week rotation. Myself and a team of other agents would travel from site to site and stand post for whatever event we were assigned to,” she said.
According to interview transcripts, the JTTF member made at least two crucial mistakes on July 13, 2024.
The first mistake came when her partner—a plainclothes Pennsylvania State Police trooper—told her around 5:45 p.m. that a suspicious person with a rangefinder was spotted outside of the rally perimeter. She hopped in a golf cart and went to look for the suspicious person, only to stop and give up when she encountered the chain-link fence between the rally site and the AGR building, which was later used as a sniper perch by gunman Thomas Crooks.
“We were stopped at the chain-link fence and there was a locked gate. Had I been able to go further at that time I would have. There was about a 20-yard grassy area and then a second chain-link fence, and the individual was reported to be on the other side of that second fence, in an industrial area,” she said.
“I went as far as I could go physically, and I visually inspected the area, and I didn’t see the person. The reporting parties didn’t have a visual on them at that time. I didn’t feel comfortable, given that the program had begun and that President Trump was en route, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the venue to go look for somebody.”
The JTTF member said she headed back towards the stage area, while her PSP partner hopped in his truck to go look for the suspicious person outside of the perimeter.
While at the stage area, the JTTF member made her second crucial mistake. There, she encountered another agent who was searching for the suspicious person. The JTTF member told the agent—the counter-sniper response agent, which is a man on the ground that provides intelligence for counter-snipers—that she already had officers searching for the suspicious person near the AGR building. According to the counter-sniper response agent, she then allegedly directed him to go look south of the stage, which was the opposite side from where Crooks was.
“She said that her state trooper counterpart was already over on the opposite side [near AGR] … and that we should spread out from there, she would go back up towards the Command Post and look up that way, and I would go back toward the south end,” the counter-sniper response agent told Congress.
When asked about whether she directed the agent to go look south of the stage, the JTTF member said she couldn’t recall.
“I don’t recall giving him any instruction, no,” she told Congress.
The JTTF member was never disciplined. She no longer works with the FBI because she transferred to another office. She said she asked to be transferred because her husband was hired as a coach. Redactions block additional details about this coaching job.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
