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‘Fingers Being Pointed’: Secret Service’s Explanations For Security Failures Ahead Of Trump Assassination Attempt Aren’t Adding Up

Published

1 year ago

12 minute read

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By KATELYNN RICHARDSON

 

Secret Service’s explanations for the security failures surrounding the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday aren’t adding up, according to security experts and former Secret Service agents.

Emerging details highlight what seems to be a disconnect between local officials and Secret Service, while making it more apparent that there were major oversights. Many key questions hinge on the responsibilities delegated to local police, who U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle confirmed during a Monday interview with ABC News were inside the building the shooter fired from, though nobody was stationed on the rooftop.

Cheatle explained a decision was made not to put anybody on top of the building because the “sloped” roof made it unsafe, but security experts and former Secret Service agents who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation emphasized not having someone on the roof was a “big failure” and didn’t believe Cheatle’s explanation was sufficient.

“Let’s just say the local law enforcement officers [and] the Secret Service agree that it’s just not safe to keep someone up there for a couple of hours,” former Secret Service agent Anthony Cangelosi told the DCNF. “Then the question is, well, how do we maintain its integrity otherwise? It’s not like you just throw your hands up and say ‘can’t do that.’”

Cangelosi said there is no “justifiable reason” for failing to cover the roof, suggesting they should have found solutions like putting another platform up or getting an officer on a lift.

Peter Yachmetz, retired FBI agent and principal security consultant at Yachmetz Consulting Group, pointed out that the shooter was moving around on the “unsafe” roof prior to the incident.

“The slope didn’t affect him,” Yachmetz told the DCNF.

Law enforcement reportedly spotted the shooter on the roof 30 minutes before shots were fired, WPXI reported Monday. After the incident, a witness described watching a man climbing onto the roof and trying to warn a police officer, claiming officials responded with confusion.

“The reality is, regardless of the spin, that particular roof should have been under constant surveillance and or posted,” former secret service agent Tim Miller told the DCNF.

 

“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Cheatle told ABC News Monday during an interview. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”

However, a local law enforcement official told The New York Times Tuesday that the local forces were in an adjacent building, not the one the shooter was firing from.

The discrepancies in their accounts only add to the uncertainties surrounding who was responsible.

CBS News reported Monday that there were three snipers stationed inside the building shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from, citing a local law enforcement officer. One of the snipers saw Crooks looking through a rangefinder in the minutes before he fired and radioed command post, according to CBS News.

The Butler Township Police Department declined to confirm the report to the DCNF, stating that there is an ongoing investigation by the FBI.

Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe declined to offer additional comments Tuesday, telling the DCNF he is “backing away from media requests for comment and opinions.”

“There are too many questions being posed that I do not have first hand knowledge of and too many fingers being pointed,” he said. “I am in charge of the Deputy Sheriffs and no other law enforcement agency. My Deputies performed their duties at their assigned areas and went above and beyond after the shooting started and ended in the their actions to help people and assist police in clearing the nearby buildings.”

Slupe previously confirmed to CNN that an armed Butler Township officer encountered Crooks before he shot at Trump, but retreated down the ladder after Crooks pointed his gun at him. He told KDKA-TV there was a security failure, but noted “there is not just one entity responsible.”

“The Secret Service plays a key role in protecting, in this case, former President Trump, but they don’t act alone,” he told the outlet. “The Secret Service receives support from local police departments.”

Pennsylvania State Police, however, did confirm they had no members “inside the building or staging in it.”

“The Pennsylvania State Police provided all resources that the United States Secret Service (USSS) requested for former President Trump’s rally in Butler on Saturday, July 13th, including approximately 30 to 40 troopers to assist with securing the inside perimeter,” Pennsylvania State Police Lieutenant Adam Reed told the DCNF. “Among PSP’s duties at the rally, the Department was not responsible for securing the building or property at AGR International.”

Reed said he could not say when an officer witnessed the shooter, as it was not a state trooper who saw him.

 

Former secret service agent Jeffrey James explained to the DCNF that protection “works in a series of concentric circles.” Typically, there is an inner circle of secret service agents, a second circle that mixes both agents and local law enforcement, and an outer ring that is largely state and local partners.

If the agent in charge of the site told a local law enforcement officer on the outer perimeter that the building is his responsibility, then anything that happens is on the officer.

“But if that agent didn’t find one of the local law enforcement partners and give very clear, direct directions…then it’s going to be the responsibility or the fault of that agent for not delegating that,” he told the DCNF.

It’s unclear what instructions the Secret Service gave to local law enforcement.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told The Washington Post Tuesday that “Secret Service was in charge” and that “it was their responsibility to make sure that the venue and the surrounding area was secure.”

“For them to blame local law enforcement is them passing the blame when they hold the blame, in my opinion,” Goldinger told The Washington Post.

However, the Secret Service released a statement on Tuesday pushing back against assertions that they were blaming local law enforcement for the tragedy that unfolded on Saturday. “Any news suggesting the Secret Service is blaming local law enforcement for Saturday’s incident is simply not true,” the statement posted to the Secret Service’s X page said.

“I am having difficulty reconciling the answer the Director gave in her ABC interview with the official statement made on social media,” Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said in a press release on Tuesday. “Our goal is to provide whatever assistance the Secret Service needs to perform their mission and to do so with mutual respect, trust, and accuracy.”

A RealClearPolitics report suggested Sunday that resources were diverted away from Trump’s rally to an event where First Lady Jill Biden was speaking. Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the United States Secret Service, denied this was the case.

Questions also remain about why Crooks was not taken out sooner. Cangelosi explained to the DCNF that counter-snipers can face challenges due to their distance from the target.

“With counter snipers, you’re usually so far away, it’s not usually clear whether an individual is an imminent threat, ” Cangelosi said. “It’s harder to discern. Once they discern whether that person is a threat to life or serious bodily injury, they can take the shot.”

Yachmetz questioned why drone coverage was not utilized.

“A drone strategically placed a few thousand feet above could have oversaw the entire venue,” he said.

“In my opinion, a detailed, in-depth very specific investigation must be conducted of all procedures [and] this entire matter by a non-biased outside investigative group (possibly of retired agents),” Yachmetz told the DCNF, emphasizing the investigation must not be “politically motivated.”

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer announced Monday that Cheatle would testify at a committee hearing on July 22. President Joe Biden said Sunday that he directed an “independent review” of the events.

The FBI told the DCNF it has “nothing additional to provide at this time beyond previously-issued statements.” The Bureau said Monday that it gained access to Crooks’ phone and “has conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses.”

Trump suffered a wound to his ear, and two were killed, including Crooks and 50-year-old ex-volunteer fire chief, Corey Comperatore. Two other attendees were also wounded the attack.

Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment.

Wallace White and Owen Klinsky contributed to this report.

Featured image credit: (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

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International

Afghan Ex–CIA Partner Accused in D.C. National Guard Ambush

Published on November 27, 2025

By

Sam Cooper's avatar Sam Cooper

In what FBI Director Kash Patel called a “heinous act of terrorism,” senior U.S. officials say they have opened a “coast-to-coast” investigation into the gunman who opened fire on two National Guard members just blocks from the White House — an Afghan man who had worked with a Central Intelligence Agency–backed paramilitary unit during the war in Afghanistan and later resettled in the United States under a Biden-era evacuation program. The case is likely to further energize the Trump administration’s already robust deportation drive and its expanded checks on immigration.

The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, allegedly ambushed two members of the West Virginia National Guard outside the Farragut West Metro station around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, in a busy commercial district a short walk from the presidential compound. Both soldiers remain in critical condition after emergency surgery, and the gunman was also wounded before being taken into custody, officials say.

Patel said his teams are investigating the attack as a “heinous act of terrorism,” which other officials have suggested could involve international terrorist networks, though they say the assailant appears to have acted alone.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Thursday that Lakanwal had previously worked alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “He previously worked with the U.S. government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” Ratcliffe said, describing a unit that operated with American support until the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government in 2021.

According to the Department of Homeland Security and multiple law-enforcement officials cited in U.S. media reports, Lakanwal entered the United States in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden administration program that airlifted tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked with U.S. forces and feared Taliban reprisals. He later applied for asylum and was granted it after President Donald Trump returned to office. Officials say he had no known criminal history and had most recently been living in Washington State, where a relative told NBC News he was working for Amazon.

NBC, citing a family member, also reported that Lakanwal served for roughly a decade in the Afghan army, including deployments in Kandahar alongside U.S. Special Forces. Those details cut to the heart of a politically explosive question in Washington — whether a man once trusted enough to fight alongside U.S. paramilitary personnel slipped through vetting as the Afghan war ended, or whether a former ally became radicalized after he arrived in America.

Officials say Wednesday’s attack unfolded in seconds. Two West Virginia Guard soldiers, part of a domestic security deployment ordered by Trump earlier this year, were on a “high-visibility patrol” near the entrance to Farragut West when a man rounded a corner, produced a handgun and opened fire without warning.

According to detailed accounts from federal officials and witnesses, the first victim — identified by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro as Sarah Beckstrom — was struck almost instantly and collapsed to the pavement. Pirro told reporters the alleged assassin was armed with a .357-caliber revolver and said that after shooting one of the victims, he “leaned over and shot him again.”

After exhausting his ammunition, the gunman allegedly grabbed the fallen soldier’s weapon and continued firing, wounding a second Guard member — Andrew Wolfe — before other troops and officers subdued him in a brief but chaotic struggle that involved both gunfire and a knife.

Reacting sharply to a reporter’s question about whether the Trump administration should have deployed National Guard units to city streets, Pirro replied that the Guard is necessary, adding that their presence “saved lives.” As officials left the news conference, Pirro brushed off a final question about whether the suspect was part of a radicalized Islamist network, saying only: “We won’t go there.”

Yesterday the Secret Service briefly locked down the White House as sirens converged on one of downtown Washington’s busiest commuter arteries. Witnesses told reporters they heard a short burst of shots followed by more sustained firing, then watched people flee into side streets and cafes as emergency vehicles arrived.

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is leading the investigation. Law-enforcement officials say they are examining Lakanwal’s digital footprint, communications and travel history, and working with intelligence agencies to retrace his time in Afghanistan and the United States. Patel said FBI teams had conducted searches overnight on numerous electronic devices found at properties associated with the suspect — including in San Diego and in Washington State.

“You miss all the signs (of danger) when you do zero vetting,” Patel told reporters when asked if the Biden administration had erred in admitting the suspect.

In a televised address from his Mar-a-Lago resort late Wednesday, President Trump framed the attack as proof that his immigration hard line is justified. Calling the shooting “a heinous assault” and “an act of evil, an act of hatred, an act of terror,” Trump said the United States “will not put up with these kinds of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in our country.”

He pledged to “re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden” and vowed that “the animal who perpetrated this atrocity” would pay “the steepest possible price.” Shortly afterward, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it has halted processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals — including asylum applications, permanent-residency cases and new entries — “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

According to an internal USCIS memo previously obtained by CBS News, the Trump administration had already directed immigration officials to review the cases of all refugees admitted during the Biden years, a cohort of roughly 233,000 people from multiple countries. Now, Afghans are facing an explicit freeze, with no end date. Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance amplified the hard-line message, writing on X that the shooting proved critics of Biden’s Afghan-refugee policy wrong and declaring: “We must redouble our efforts to deport people with no right to be in our country.”

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Artificial Intelligence

Trump’s New AI Focused ‘Manhattan Project’ Adds Pressure To Grid

Published on November 26, 2025

By

 

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

Will America’s electricity grid make it through the impending winter of 2025-26 without suffering major blackouts? It’s a legitimate question to ask given the dearth of adequate dispatchable baseload that now exists on a majority of the major regional grids according to a new report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

In its report, NERC expresses particular concern for the Texas grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), where a rapid buildout of new, energy hogging AI datacenters and major industrial users is creating a rapid increase in electricity demand. “Strong load growth from new data centers and other large industrial end users is driving higher winter electricity demand forecasts and contributing to continued risk of supply shortfalls,” NERC notes.

Texas, remember, lost 300 souls in February 2021 when Winter Storm Uri put the state in a deep freeze for a week. The freezing temperatures combined with snowy and icy conditions first caused the state’s wind and solar fleets to fail. When ERCOT implemented rolling blackouts, they denied electricity to some of the state’s natural gas transmission infrastructure, causing it to freeze up, which in turn caused a significant percentage of natural gas power plants to fall offline. Because the state had already shut down so much of its once formidable fleet of coal-fired plants and hasn’t opened a new nuclear plant since the mid-1980s, a disastrous major blackout that lingered for days resulted.

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To their credit, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the legislature, ERCOT, and other state agencies have invoked major reforms to the system designed to prevent this scenario from happening again over the last four years. But, as NERC notes, the state remains dangerously short of dispatchable thermal capacity needed to keep the grid up and running when wind and solar inevitably drop off the system in such a storm. And ERCOT isn’t alone: Several other regional grids are in the same boat.

This country’s power generation sector can either get serious about building out the needed new thermal capacity or disaster will inevitably result again, because demand isn’t going to stop rising anytime soon. In fact, the already rapid expansion of the AI datacenter industry is certain to accelerate in the wake of President Trump’s approval on Monday of the Genesis Mission, a plan to create another Manhattan Project-style partnership between the government and private industry focused on AI.

It’s an incredibly complex vision, but what the Genesis Mission boils down to is an effort to build an “integrated AI platform” consisting of all federal scientific datasets to which selected AI development projects will be provided access. The concept is to build what amounts to a national brain to help accelerate U.S. AI development and enable America to remain ahead of China in the global AI arm’s race.

So, every dataset that is currently siloed within DOE, NASA, NSF, Census Bureau, NIH, USDA, FDA, etc. will be melded into a single dataset to try to produce a sort of quantum leap in AI development. Put simply, most AI tools currently exist in a phase of their development in which they function as little more than accelerated, advanced search tools – basically, they’re in the fourth grade of their education path on the way to obtaining their doctorate’s degree. This is an effort to invoke a quantum leap among those selected tools, enabling them to figuratively skip eight grades and become college freshmen.

Here’s how the order signed Monday by President Trump puts it: “The Genesis Mission will dramatically accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen national security, secure energy dominance, enhance workforce productivity, and multiply the return on taxpayer investment into research and development, thereby furthering America’s technological dominance and global strategic leadership.”

It’s an ambitious goal that attempts to exploit some of the same central planning techniques China is able to use to its own advantage.

But here’s the thing: Every element envisioned in the Genesis Mission will require more electricity: Much more, in fact. It’s a brave new world that will place a huge amount of added pressure on power generation companies and grid managers like ERCOT. Americans must hope and pray they’re up to the task. Their track records in this century do not inspire confidence.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

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