Goldinger’s account was confirmed by a Secret Service official briefed on the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid about a sensitive, ongoing investigation.
The Secret Service official confirmed that positioning an officer outside the building was considered one of the ways to protect against the risk that the agency prepares for at all public events — that a shooter on high ground has a clear line of sight on the president or other senior officials being protected. The building, owned by Agr International, was just outside the security perimeter for Saturday’s rally.
Authorities from a number of jurisdictions were on the ground Saturday, and officials are still determining how the building was guarded — and how the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, reached the roof. But the warning from local law enforcement of insufficient manpower adds to questions about whether there was adequate security for the high-stakes presidential campaign visit.
The proposal to station a patrol car and officer outside the Agr International building complex had been part of the Secret Service’s advance planning for securing this prominent structure, which had a expansive roof with an unobstructed view of the rally stage less than 150 yards away where Trump would later stand, the Secret Service official told The Washington Post.
Federal authorities have launched a growing number of investigations into the shooting at Saturday’s rally, which left Trump wounded, one rallygoer dead and two others critically injured. It is considered the most serious security failure by the Secret Service since the attempted assassination of then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
The FBI is leading the criminal investigation, Congress is planning to hold hearings and President Biden has called for an independent probe of the shooting and the security situation. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has announced it is investigating the actions of the Secret Service before and during the attempted assassination.
Inspector General Joseph Cuffari posted on his office’s website that the department has begun a probe into the “Secret Service’s Process for Securing Former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 Event.”
The Associated Press first reported the investigation.
On Wednesday, officials from the Secret Service, the Department of Justice and the FBI will provide an update to the Senate on the incident starting at 3 p.m., according to the office of Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who asked for the briefing. A briefing for members of the House will follow, with Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle took responsibility for the security failures that led to the shooting in an interview with ABC News. But the first attack on a U.S. leader under the agency’s protection since the 1981 shooting that wounded Reagan has raised broad questions about the elite protective agency’s planning, strategy and response to the attack.
Crooks climbed onto the roof of the Agr International building and fired shots at the former president before a Secret Service sniper killed him. The Post has reported that local police snipers were inside the building complex as the gunman opened fire, and that bystanders at the rally alerted local police that they had spotted a man climbing onto the roof.
The Secret Service was responsible for the overall security plan, but Cheatle said in an interview that the agency relied on local law enforcement in areas outside the security perimeter, including the building where the shooter was. She also said they made the decision to keep officers off the sloped roof because the incline presented a safety issue.
“The decision was made to secure the building from inside,” Cheatle said.
Secret Service countersniper teams may have initially been unable to spot the shooter as he crawled up the roof because of its slanted sides, as well as trees in the area, The Post has reported.
Cuffari, whose watchdog office provides independent oversight and auditing of DHS agencies, is a polarizing figure and has faced calls to resign over a series of issues. He has faced criticism for failing to immediately notify Congress that the Secret Service erased its text messages from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, and for scrapping efforts to recover the messages, potentially depriving investigators of valuable evidence.
He has also faced criticism for delaying or censoring reports on domestic violence and sexual misconduct within DHS.
Cuffari was a longtime investigator in the Tucson outpost of the Department of Justice inspector general’s office but left in 2013 after an internal investigation accused him of misleading federal investigators. The probe called for a deeper review, but Cuffari stepped away from the agency before that occurred. Trump picked him to serve as DHS inspector general, and the Senate confirmed him by a voice vote in 2019.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
Shawn Boburg, Jon Swaine, Aaron Schaffer, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Jacqueline Alemany and Lisa Rein contributed to this report.
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