Communication failures by the U.S. Secret Service on Jan. 6, 2021, that are described in a still-secret inspector general report could relate directly to mistakes made on July 13 leading up to the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump, congressional sources told Blaze News.
The Jan. 6 report from Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari was submitted for review in April but is being held up in the office of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a senior congressional aide told Blaze News on the condition of anonymity. The Secret Service is part of the DHS.
“They don’t want it out. They don’t want it publicized. They don’t like the conclusions,” the source said. “And that was before this [shooting] happened.”
Before being sent to Mayorkas, the Jan. 6 Office of Inspector General report was reviewed by Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, the source said. The OIG’s Jan. 6 investigation has been ongoing for more than three years.
“That January 6 report that we’ve been waiting on from the IG has a set of recommendations in there,” the source said. “It’s about the Secret Service failures on January 6. One of the recommendations directly related to what happened on Saturday.”
The source had not read a copy of the Jan. 6 OIG report but had its contents described by officials familiar with its development. The connection between the report and communication failures on July 13 is one of the possible links.
Another senior congressional staff member said communication problems could tie the Jan. 6 OIG report to the tragedy at the Trump rally at the Butler Farm Show Inc. fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I believe the recommendation that ties J6 to J13 is the USSS’s inexplicably disjointed and inefficient communication structure with other agencies,” the source told Blaze News on the condition of anonymity.
Blaze News contacted the Homeland Security OIG and Secretary Mayorkas’ office for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.
Cuffari’s office has opened three investigations on the attempted assassination, including one on counter-sniper team preparedness and two others on the process for securing the Trump site and determining how well the agency’s work “ensures the safety and security of designated protectees,” the OIG website said.
‘Our Secret Service sniper, from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin’s life.’
Just after 6:11 p.m. on July 13, Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle on former President Trump, striking him in the right ear and causing a mad scramble by the Secret Service to cover Trump and move him off the stage.
Crooks climbed onto the roof of Building 6 at the American Glass Research manufacturing complex just north of the fairgrounds. Even though witnesses near the building saw him crawling up the roof with his rifle, that information did not seem to make it to Secret Service agents guarding Trump during his truncated speech.
Crooks fired shots at the podium and surrounding area. Retired volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania, was killed while shielding his family from the gunfire. Two other rally-goers were seriously wounded by Crooks’ hail of bullets.
Key questions still to be answered by the OIG, the FBI, and congressional committees tasked with investigating the attempted assassination include why Crooks was not stopped as he drew attention near the event for more than three hours. Cell phone videos posted on social media show bystanders near the AGR complex shouting for police as Crooks shimmied up the slightly pitched roof.
Trump’s sudden turn of the head as he referenced a large information graphic for the crowd ultimately saved his life. A rifle round aimed at the center of his head grazed his right ear instead.
Seconds after Crooks opened fire on Trump and the crowd, a police sniper nearly 450 yards away fired a round and struck the young man. Crooks suffered at least three bullet wounds, a source told Blaze News. It’s not yet known which sniper’s bullet struck Crooks’ head and killed him.
President Trump referenced the work of the sniper teams during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18. His comments confirmed exclusive coverage by Blaze News a day earlier.
‘There were horrible comms that day.’
“And then it all stopped,” Trump said after recounting the horror of being shot. “Our Secret Service sniper, from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin’s life.”
Two elite experts who have frequently served in security missions globally and train snipers and other agents at the Secret Service and other agencies identified communications as a key problem.
Police and Secret Service radios were not on a common channel on July 13, the sources said. “There were horrible comms that day,” one said.
At least one of the sniper teams had Crooks in their sights, but they went into “deconfliction mode” because they expected that the roof on which Crooks was prone with his rifle would be secured by police, the sources said.
The roof of Building 6 was supposed to have a counter-sniper team on it during the event, the sources said, but for unknown reasons, there was no one to secure that building.
The net result of the hesitation was more likely due to the “friend-or-foe” deconfliction effort than anything nefarious, the sources said.
Local police spotted Crooks crawling on a retaining wall along one side of Building 6 at about 5:30 p.m. A photo of Crooks taken by a police officer from a mast-cam, drone or helicopter, was circulated to officers on the ground.
On Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol, questions have been raised about Secret Service actions before, during, and after a pipe bomb was discovered at the nearby Democratic National Committee headquarters.
The FBI has said the would-be bomber placed the device next to a bench along the DNC building the night before Jan. 6. The pipe bomb was not discovered until 1:05 p.m. by a Capitol Police counter-surveillance officer.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arrived at the DNC at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 6. Her motorcade pulled into the garage entrance just feet from where the pipe bomb was found more than 90 minutes later.
Security video brought to light by U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) showed that in the minutes after discovery of the bomb, Secret Service agents and police officers stood in the building’s driveway having a conversation. Before the officers sitting in two vehicles in the driveway emerged, they finished their lunches, Massie reported.
Questions have been raised as to whether the Secret Service did a proper sweep of the property with bomb-sniffing dogs before Harris’ arrival. An officer seen on CCTV security video earlier in the day shows what appeared to be a bomb dog walking along the building perimeter, including the area near the bomb. The dog did not discover the device.
The Secret Service deleted text messages from its phones from Jan. 5 and 6 during a “device replacement program,” Cuffari wrote in a letter to House and Senate Homeland Security committees. The deletion came after Cuffari’s office demanded Secret Service electronic communications from Jan. 6.
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