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Secret Service slammed for failing to prevent assassination attempt against Trump

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BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA – JULY 13: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

From LifeSiteNews

By Matt Lamb

“I don’t like making any assumptions, but it does look like some mistakes were made, that this was preventable”

Secret Service is blaming local law enforcement for not securing the rooftop where a 20-year-old tried to assassinate  former President Donald Trump over the weekend.

But local law enforcement, and several experts who spoke to NBC News, said all responsibility for protecting the president ultimately lies with the Secret Service.

The agency is under widespread criticism for allowing a shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, to have clear access to President Trump during his rally on Saturday in Pennsylvania. Crooks hit Trump’s right ear, but the president is reportedly in good condition.

It has been reported that Crooks was at one point a registered Republican but that he also made a $15 donation to Progressive Turnout Project, a left-wing Democratic Party-linked activist group, in 2021.

The rooftop “was identified by the Secret Service as a potential vulnerability in the days before the event, two sources familiar with the agency’s operations told NBC News,” the outlet reported last night.

“The Secret Service had designated that rooftop as being under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement, a common practice in securing outdoor rallies,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, according to NBC News’ paraphrase.

The outlet reported:

The Secret Service worked with local law enforcement to maintain event security, including sniper teams poised on rooftops to identify and eliminate threats, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. But no officers were posted on the building used by the would-be assassin, outside the event’s security perimeter but only about 148 yards from the stage — within range of a semiautomatic rifle like the one the gunman was carrying.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger disagreed with the Secret Service’s assertion. “They had meetings in the week prior. The Secret Service ran the show. They were the ones who designated who did what,” he said, referring to the county’s law enforcement and its cooperation with the federal agency. “In the command hierarchy, they were top, they were No. 1.”
“Just because it is outside of the perimeter, it doesn’t take it out of play for a vulnerability, and you’ve got to mitigate it in some fashion,” a former Secret Service agent told NBC News, agreeing with the county’s assessment. “My question is: How did he get onto that roof undetected,” another former Secret Service agent told NBC News.

“I don’t like making any assumptions, but it does look like some mistakes were made, that this was preventable,” Anthony Cangelosi told NBC News.

Radio host and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino also criticized his former employer.

“Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle should’ve already resigned,” Bongino wrote on X. “Inexcusable that this incompetent mess of a Director is still holding on, while protectees are in danger.”

Local law enforcement reportedly confronted the shooter on the roof but did not stop him after he pointed his gun at them. “A local law enforcement officer climbed to the roof and found Crooks, who pointed the rifle at the officer,” PBS reported. “The officer then retreated down the ladder, and the gunman quickly fired toward Trump, the officials said. That’s when U.S. Secret Service gunmen shot him, the officials said.”

The local sheriff’s office said the officer had to retreat because he could not grab his gun.

“Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe said the officer was gripping the edge of the roof after climbing up using a ladder, and could not reach his gun when Crooks aimed at him,” The Telegraph reported. “He lets go because he doesn’t want to get killed,” Slupe said.

Officials identified Corey Comperatore as a fatal victim of the shooting. The firefighter died shielding his family from the gunfire.

Two other victims are in “stable condition,” the Pennsylvania State Police announced on Sunday.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said that the Department of Homeland of Security will conduct a review of the assassination attempt and added that DHS is “engaged” with Trump and his campaign.

The FBI said it is investigating the attack as “domestic terrorism.”

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International

Woman wins settlement after YMCA banned her for complaining about man in girls’ locker room

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From LifeSiteNews

By Calvin Freiburger

Julie Jaman will receive $65,000 as part of the settlement after being banned from a local swimming pool for objecting to a man in a female shower with little girls present

A Washington State grandmother won a $65,000 settlement from the City of Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula YMCA after she was banned from a swimming pool for objecting to a cross-dressing man watching small girls change clothes.

As covered by LifeSiteNews in 2022, Julie Jaman testified before the Port Townsend City Council about her experience showering in the local pool’s facilities when she heard “a man’s voice in the women’s dressing area.” When she investigated, she said that she saw “a man in a women’s swimsuit, watching little girls pull down their bathing suits in order to use the toilets in the dressing room.”

She also told a local newspaper, “There were gaps in the curtain and there I was, naked, with soap and water on me, and this guy, right there very close to me. I asked, ‘Do you have a penis?’ He said, ‘That’s none of your business.’ That’s when I told him, ‘Get out of here, right now.” She appealed to a nearby female manager, who she says replied, “you’re discriminating and you can’t use the pool anymore and I’m calling the police.”

After speaking to police and reviewing police reports, the Port Townsend FreePress reported that Jaman had an “emotional response to a strange male being in the bathroom and helping a young girl take off her bathing suit,” and was described as “screaming” by a complainant.

“In an effort by the city and the YMCA to apply the neo-cultural gender rules at Mountain View Pool dressing, shower room facilities, women and children are being put at risk,” Jaman declared at the time.

A YMCA marketing and communications manager responded at the time by disputing her version of events, claiming the male was not “engaging” with the young girls but was simply escorting them to the dressing room, and that the confrontation was just one in a series of many that led to her ban.

She sued, however, and on June 30 the group representing her, the Center for American Liberty (CAL), announced that the city and the YMCA chapter had agreed to a $65,000 settlement, which also provides that the city will “remove certain information about Ms. Jaman from its website, further underscoring the baselessness of the actions taken against her.”

“This case was never just about one woman being banned from a publicly owned pool, it was about the fundamental right of every American to speak truth without fear of retaliation,” said Mark Trammell, CEO of CAL. “Julie Jaman bravely stood her ground, endured attacks on her character, and today’s settlement affirms that government officials cannot silence dissenting voices through intimidation or retribution.”

“I never imagined that expressing concerns about the safety and privacy of women and girls would lead to me being shunned and banned,” Jaman added. “I’m grateful that justice has been served and that my voice was heard. This is a victory for common sense, women’s rights, and the right to speak the truth.”

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Crime

Bryan Kohberger avoids death penalty in brutal killing of four Idaho students

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Quick Hit:

Bryan Kohberger will plead guilty to murdering four Idaho college students, avoiding a death sentence but leaving victims’ families without answers. The plea deal means he’ll spend life in prison without ever explaining why he committed the brutal 2022 killings.

Key Details:

  • Kohberger will plead guilty at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. local time.
  • The plea deal removes the possibility of death by firing squad but ensures life in prison without parole.
  • Victims’ families say the state “failed” them by agreeing to a deal that denies them an explanation for the murders.

Diving Deeper:

Bryan Kohberger, a former PhD criminology student at Washington State University, is expected to plead guilty to the November 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students, sparing himself the death penalty but also avoiding any explanation for his motive. Idaho defense attorney Edwina Elcox told the New York Post that under the plea, Kohberger will have to admit to the killings but won’t have to provide a reason for his actions. “There is no requirement that he says why for a plea,” Elcox explained.

Prosecutors reached the plea deal just weeks before the scheduled trial, which many believed would have revealed the full details and motives behind the shocking quadruple homicide. Kohberger is accused of murdering Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Ethan Chapin, 20; and Xana Kernodle, 20, with a military-style Ka-Bar knife as they slept in their off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho. His DNA was allegedly found on a knife sheath left at the scene.

The Goncalves family blasted the state for the deal, saying, “They have failed us.” They had hoped a trial would uncover why Kohberger targeted their daughter and her friends. Prosecutors, however, argued that the plea ensures a guaranteed conviction and prevents the years of appeals that typically follow a death sentence, providing a sense of finality and keeping Kohberger out of the community forever.

Sentencing will not take place for several weeks following Wednesday’s hearing, which is expected to last about an hour as the judge confirms the plea agreement is executed properly. While the families may find some closure in knowing Kohberger will never be free again, they are left without the one thing a trial could have provided: answers.

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool)

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