Officials from Butler, Pa. claim that the Secret Service said it would secure the complex of buildings from where would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks took a shot at former President Donald Trump July 13.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed the claims by local law enforcement in a letter to acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Tuesday.
“Butler County law enforcement officials stated that at separate times during the walkthrough when they reiterated their concerns to the agents and counter-sniper about securing the AGR complex buildings, the agents responded: ‘We will take care of it,’” Grassley wrote.
The local officials had raised concerns “several times” about securing the area during the July 11 survey of the area, according to Grassley, whose letter was first reported by Fox News.
“Butler County law enforcement officials said they told the Secret Service counter-sniper that they didn’t have the manpower to cover the AGR complex buildings and asked that the whole area be ‘locked down,’” the Iowa Republican further explained.
Shortly after the assassination attempt, in which rallygoer Corey Comperatore was killed and Trump and two others were wounded, Butler County District Attorney Rich Goldinger and others insisted that the Secret Service had been informed that local police lacked the manpower to secure the buildings.
Crooks, 20, managed to crawl across the rooftop of one of those buildings and fire off eight shots, including one that grazed and drew blood from Trump’s right ear, before he was killed by a counter-sniper.
Grassley demanded Rowe confirm whether or not the claims from local law enforcement were true.
Neighbors living near the Butler Farm Show Grounds previously told The Post they weren’t visited by any law enforcement agencies — local or federal — prior to or during the rally.
“Nobody contacted me. Nobody. Nobody called me, nobody stopped here,” said Valerie Fennell, whose home backs up on the fairgrounds.
“I kinda was thinking that as close as my house is, that I honestly thought this might be part of a command station at some point.”
Grassley noted that Rowe had testified during a July 30 hearing “that it was your understanding ‘what was communicated is that the locals had a plan and that they had been there before.’”
The senator gave Rowe a deadline of Sept. 24 to respond to his letter and ripped into the protective agency for declining to provide responses to past requests for information.
“That’s unacceptable and fails to take into consideration Congress’s constitutional authority to conduct independent oversight. It also flies in the face of your congressional testimony about responding to Congress,” the senator declared.
Following the Butler assassination attempt against Trump, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned under pressure.
On Sunday, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was apprehended and later hit with two federal weapons charges after prosecutors say he set up a sniper’s nest on the perimeter of Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach while the former president played a round of golf.
Routh was foiled when a Secret Service agent on advance patrol spotted a rifle barrel protruding from the bushes and opened fire.
Rowe has pleaded publicly for more resources and said Monday that he was “redlining” agents due to the security demands of the election cycle.
There has been bipartisan frustration among lawmakers over a lack of information from the Secret Service and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, following July 13.
“I am reaching the point of total outrage, because the response from the Department of Homeland Security has been totally lacking,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday.
“In fact, I think it’s tantamount to stonewalling in many respects.”
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
