At this point, it's been well established that the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump last month has severely damaged the reputation of the Secret Service. Even they have acknowledged that it was a colossal failure. However, in the weeks since Donald Trump narrowly escaped being killed, we've gotten a lot of smoke and mirrors from the Secret Service, as the agency has been putting out false information to cover up what really happened, and why a rooftop 150 yards away from Trump, with perfect line-of-sight wasn't secured.
Director Kimberly Cheatle may be gone, but acting Director Ronald Rowe has done little to boost confidence that the Secret Service is in better hands and is truly interested in getting to the bottom of why and how the assassination attempt happened.
During recent testimony he provided to Congress, the diagram he provided to a joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees, has raised eyebrows.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent Rowe a letter, accompanied by photos, urging him to clarify his statements, suggesting that Rowe lied during his testimony.
“As part of my ongoing investigation into the attempted assassination, my investigative staff communicated with local law enforcement, to include counter snipers who were on site that day,” Grassley wrote in his letter. “Local law enforcement dispute the angle of the picture that you provided during your testimony, stating that the picture you provided neither accurately depicts their line of sight and coverage area from their position in the building nor their physical placement within the building."
Related: A Whistleblower Makes Scary New Claims About the Trump Assassination Attempt
“As of August 9, 2024, Beaver County ESU have told my staff that Secret Service had not met with them to debrief the events of July 13,” Grassley continued. “This type of meeting should be standard, even more so before you are sworn in and provide testimony to Congress. Unfortunately, this further points to the communications issues that are in part to blame for that day, that seemingly continue to plague the Secret Service.”
‼️ Grassley wants answers on conflicting Secret Service vs. Butler police line of sight diagrams.
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) August 9, 2024
This is not all of what Secret Service Acting Dir. Rowe lied or provided misstatements about under sworn oath at the Senate hearing - but it is important. (He also lied about not… pic.twitter.com/34TLmdM848
"The diagram includes a narrow red triangle, clearly labeled 'Beaver Sniper Line of Sight,'" explains Susan Crabtree at RealClearPolitics. "That line of sight is narrowly conscribed between the location of the snipers inside the AGR building to the stage and pointedly does not cover any area of the rooftop where Crooks ran across and then stopped to open fire."
The narrow scope of the red triangle’s purported “line of sight” immediately stood out to some sources within the Secret Service community as purposefully narrowly constructed so as to try to prove that the local snipers never had any portion of the AGR building rooftop in their line of sight and therefore were not at fault for failing to monitor that rooftop.
“Either the red vector was drawn deliberately to avoid responsibility, or it does not include any part of the roof by sheer accident,” one source told RealClearPolitics. “Either way, no one had eyes on the [AGR] roof.”
Crabtree went on to explain that law enforcement sources didn't buy "the narrow nature of the red-triangle line of sight" and "believe a local police sniper should have had a much broader line of sight from his position, potentially allowing him to spot the assailant on the American Glass Research (AGR) rooftop during Trump's rally. "In other words, he would have seen Crooks, if he had properly done his job, the sources argued."
Acting Secret Service Director Rowe, during his Senate testimony on Tuesday, put out a more simplified diagram showing a direct line of sight, or view of the entire AGR rooftop from where the local snipers were positioned.
“Why was the assailant not seen when we were told that building was going to be covered?” Rowe angrily demanded during his Tuesday testimony. “That there had been a face-to-face that afternoon – that our team leads met.”
“This was the view,” Rowe said, pointing to a photo of the AGR building’s rooftop. “These were discussions that were had between the [Secret Service’s] Pittsburgh Field Office, the local counterparts, and everyone supporting that visit that day.”
Will we ever get the truth from those responsible for the failure?
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