(Ken Silva, Headline USA) It’s been widely reported that the Secret Service didn’t attend a local law enforcement briefing before the deadly July 13 Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Instead, the Secret Service had its own briefing that morning.
Questions persist as to why federal and local law enforcement didn’t coordinate with each other. According to a new report from the House Task Force investigating the Trump shooting, a Pennsylvania State Police trooper did try to attend the Secret Service’s morning briefing on July 13—but a federal agent prevented him from doing so.
“USSS held its own briefing at 1000 with USSS assets at the site. USSS counter snipers and [local] sniper assets spoke with each other following these briefings, but witnesses testified to the Task Force that there was no broader briefing among USSS and local or state partners, nor were they aware of an intent to hold such a briefing,” stated the House Task Force report, released Monday.
One of the most interesting revelations from yesterday's Trump Shooting Task Force report is that the Pa. state police were BLOCKED from attending the Secret Service's morning briefing.
The PSP trooper who was prevented from doing so is almost certainly Sgt. Joseph Olayer, who… pic.twitter.com/2iBFyIXiIN— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 22, 2024
“In fact, a PSP trooper who was assigned to the USSS Command Post for the rally was invited to the 1000 USSS briefing by one USSS agent, then subsequently asked to leave by another.”
Based on the House Task Force report’s description, the PSP trooper who was prevented from attending the Secret Service briefing was Sgt. Joseph Olayer, who was inside the Secret Service command center at the time of the shooting. Olayer was responsible for relaying info between the Secret Service and local law enforcement—who had their own, separate command center—and his identity was first reported by the Washington Post on Aug. 3.
Olayer didn’t immediately respond to this publication’s query about who blocked him from attending the July 13 Secret Service briefing, and why. His lack of attendance may have been a factor that led to the shooting of Donald Trump, the death of rallygoer Corey Comperatore, and the hospitalization of at least two others.
Indeed, as has been documented in several official reports, the federal and local law enforcement agencies had tremendous difficulty relaying information to each other during the Trump rally. Olayer had to use his cell phone to relay information between the locals and the feds.
According to DHS-commissioned report released last week, Olayer incorrectly assumed that the local command post had PSP radio equipment. He wouldn’t even have been able to communicate with Butler ESU Commander Ed Lenz, but for the fact that the two were already personal friends, the report also revealed.
Sgt. Olayer, who was the PSP liaison inside the Secret Service post, apparently assumed — incorrectly! — that there was a PSP radio in the local command center pic.twitter.com/FlB6zWxscJ
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) October 22, 2024
“[Olayer] surmised, but was never specifically informed, that the local mobile command post had access to a PSP radio,” the DHS report stated.
“At key moments in the chronology of events, communications between the local mobile command post and [Olayer] actually were occurring by cell phone rather than radio, and even this was fortuitously facilitated by a personal friendship the PSP sergeant had with the Butler ESU commander in the local mobile command post.”
However, perhaps the most fatal mistake made inside the Secret Service command center was made not by Olayer, but by Secret Service senior official Jeffrey Burr, who was in charge of communications. Burr failed to inform the Secret Service snipers and Trump’s personal security detail that Thomas Crooks was on the AGR rooftop with a rifle, according to a Senate Homeland Security Committee investigation.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
