Assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania (File photo)
WASHINGTON: The US secret service did not receive 102 local radio transmissions about the gunman who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump at a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a govt watchdog report released on Thursday.The agency was unaware of the transmissions on July 13, 2024, because it had failed to establish a joint communications room with local law enforcement, which was receiving reports about the search for a suspicious person later identified as Thomas Crooks, according to the report by the department of homeland security’s inspector general. “Instead, we found that the secret service received only five phone calls and three text messages about Crooks,” the report notes. “As a result, secret service members did not alert President Trump’s protective detail about concerns of a suspicious person.”Recommendations in the inspector general’s report covered such areas as information sharing and addressing “line of sight vulnerabilities” ahead of events. The secret service said that it concurred with the inspector general’s recommendations. “Many of these recommendations were already identified … and have since been implemented as part of our reform efforts,” a spokesperson said.(This is a Reuters story)
