Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. disclosed on Tuesday that he has lost sleep over his agency not detecting the man who shot former President Donald Trump when he was flying a drone ahead of the assassination attempt.
Thomas Michael Crooks flew a drone over Trump’s rally location in Butler, Pennsylvania, for 11 minutes near the former president’s podium at around 3:50 PM, hours before he took the stage, according to The New York Times. Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, asked Rowe why the Secret Service did not have a system in place to track Crooks’ drone, with the acting Secret Service director saying he has “no explanation for it” and that he has lost sleep over the issue. (RELATED: Security Had Reportedly Been Stationed On Rooftop Used By Trump Rally Shooter, But Abandoned It Due To ‘Hot Weather’)
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Acting Secret Service Director Reveals What Has ‘Cost’ Him ‘A Lot Of Sleep’ With Trump Assassination Attempt pic.twitter.com/KOF2XMWErM
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“Secret Service deployed a counter, unmanned aerial system operator on July 13, according to the Secret Service. The drone system was supposed to be operational at 3:00 PM that day.” Grassley said. “However, we have been told by Secret Service that because of cellular bandwidth problems, it was not operational until about 5:20 of that day. If the system was operational, Secret Service would have had the ability to detect the shooter and his own drone use. Why is the Secret Service dependent upon local cellular network? Does the Secret Service have a backup plan in place?”
“That is something … that has cost me a lot of sleep because of the eventual outcome of the assailant, that what if we had geo-located him because that counter [unmanned aerial system] platform had been up? It is something that I have struggled with, to understand, and I have no explanation for it,” Rowe said. “It is something that I feel as though we could have perhaps found him. We could have maybe stopped him.”
Crooks killed former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore in the attack. He also injured two rally attendees and the former president.
“Maybe on that particular day he would have decided, this isn’t the day to do it because law enforcement just found me flying my drone,” Rowe continued. “People fly drones all the time on the peripheries of our sites. And we go out, and we talk to them and ascertain what their intentions are.”
Rowe added that the Secret Service will now be “leveraging resources from the Department of Homeland Security and others to make sure we have dedicated connectivity so we are not reliant on public domain, so we can ensure whatever assets we have in place, those assets are operational.”
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle recently resigned in the aftermath of the assassination attempt and her evasive testimony before Congress.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” Cheatle said in an email to staff obtained by the Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
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