There's *ANOTHER* Disturbing Update on the Trump Assassination Attempt

Townhall ^ | 07/19/2024 | Matt Vespa

[SeekAndFind]

It keeps getting worse: Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, reportedly flew a drone over the rally area shortly before he executed his attack. Crooks scaled a rooftop unmolested, despite scores of attendees watching him army crawl on the roof, which was left unprotected by the Secret Service, as he lined up to take shots at Trump.

The roof was less than 200 yards from the stage. Donald Trump Jr. responded to this update tweeting, "Just to underscore how crazy this all is, I was once prevented flying my own drone off of the beach at Mar-a-Lago by USSS because my father was inside the house" (via WSJ):

WSJ, breaking: “The gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump was able to fly a drone and get aerial footage of the western Pennsylvania fairgrounds shortly before the former president was set to speak there, law-enforcement officials briefed on the matter said, further underscoring…— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) July 19, 2024

A gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump was able to fly a drone and get aerial footage of the western Pennsylvania fairgrounds shortly before the former president was set to speak there, law-enforcement officials briefed on the matter said, further underscoring the stunning security lapses ahead of Trump’s near assassination. 

Thomas Matthew Crooks flew the drone on a programmed flight path earlier in the day on July 13 to scour the Butler Farm Show grounds ahead of Trump’s ill-fated rally, the officials said. The predetermined path, the officials added, suggests Crooks flew the drone more than once as he researched and scoped out the event site. 

The 20-year-old would-be assassin fired at least six rounds from the roof of the American Glass Research building roughly 400 feet away from where Trump spoke, killing one spectator, critically injuring two others and leaving Trump with a graze wound to the ear. A Secret Service sniper team shot back, killing Crooks, whose motive remains a mystery. 

Multiple investigations are under way into how a gunman was able to climb onto a rooftop with a clear line of sight to Trump and open fire with an AR-15 rifle. Police had become suspicious of Crooks more than an hour earlier, when officers saw him milling about the edges of the rally with a range finder and a backpack.

FOX NEWS ALERT: ‘Trump gunman flew drone over rally site hours before event,’ reports WSJ.

“Unbelievable. There are growing questions for the Secret Service Director - this is getting worse by the day,” says @IngrahamAngle with reaction from @MarshaBlackburn. pic.twitter.com/0YjLudtOJn— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) July 20, 2024

Why the Secret Service left the rooftop unprotected remains the predominant issue, especially since it was flagged as a security vulnerability. There were snipers in the adjacent building at the time of the attack, with another Secret Service sniper team having their sights on Crooks two minutes before he fired the first shot. Yet, even before the rally, the Secret Service was informed that there was a credible threat against Trump’s life 10 minutes before he took the stage but allowed him to proceed anyway.

Trump was the target of an Iranian assassination plot, so he was given increased security, and this shooting still occurred. Trump missed a fatal headshot by millimeters. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) revealed today that most of Trump’s security detail weren’t even Secret Service agents. There is a mountain of questions that need answers. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should be prepared to be grilled when he testified before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.

Authorities spotted crooks over an hour before he scaled the roof, being caught scouting the location with a rangefinder. It's a security failure worthy of Cheatle's resignation, but she has the protection of Jill Biden, who reportedly pushed for her to get the job. 

Just to underscore how crazy this all is, I was once prevented flying MY OWN drone off of the beach at Mar-a-Lago by USSS because my father was inside the house…
Now we have one literally scouting his speech!!! 🤬 https://t.co/M3BAENqT4f— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 20, 2024

UPDATE:  What a mess via Bill Melugin:

NEW: Per federal law enforcement source w/ knowledge of the security planning for Trump’s Butler, PA rally, the event was staffed by 22 Secret Service agents, including advance, assault, and sniper teams, 16 HSI agents, and it is believed there was no SS drone in the air.

Per…— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 19, 2024

Per federal law enforcement source  w/ knowledge of the security planning for Trump’s Butler, PA rally, the event was staffed by 22 Secret Service agents, including advance, assault, and sniper teams, 16 HSI agents, and it is believed there was no SS drone in the air.

Per source, Secret Service did not request any tactical support from HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) beforehand, including the HSI elite Special Response team. HSI agents were assigned to “post standing” security duties at the street entrance and the media area, and were not responsible for the close proximity around Trump, or the buildings on the exterior of the area where the shooter was. 

The entire operational security plan was created and carried out by Secret Service, which told HSI and local law enforcement where they needed bodies, and was responsible for the advance planning.

A 20 year old had a drone and the secret service, with a budget of $3.6 billion, did not. https://t.co/RB3O2lXhbl— Rosie Memos (@almostjingo) July 19, 2024

[Steven Tyler]

makes sense.
Fly a drone to pinpoint SS and Police folks providing security
Check the roof of buildings. Confirm how to access the roof and make sure Police are not setting up on that roof....

[OldHarbor]

Who is Thomas Arthur Valee ? He was the patsy for the Chicago plot to kill JFK . A 4 man hit squad was in Chicago to take JFK out. Valee was not part of the team. Valee’s role was to play a loud mouth Anti-Kennedy guy.

A landllord at a Chicago boarding house found four scoped rifles and a map with JFK’s parade route at her boarding house.

On that parade route, the motorcade was going to take a hairpin turn , requiring a 9 mph turn .Hmmm, just like Dallas.

Arthur Valee had a job in a building that overlooked the location of the turn.

Wow, just like how Oswald worked at the Texas School Depository building.

The Secret Service bungled the arrest of the hit team and only arrested 2 and then released them !

Valee, fwiw had a pistol, a rifle and 3,000 rounds of ammo in his room when he was arrested . He was arrested for the misdemeanor of having a hunting knife on his car seat, found during a traffic stop.

Years later, a down and out Valee admitted he had worked for…….. the CIA.

[OldHarbor]

Who is this ? Why, it’s Gilbert Policarpo Lopez, the patsy in place for the Tampa plot to kill JFK.

Gilbert worked at the Floridian Hotel that over looked JFK’s parade route .

The motorcade would have to take a turn right by the hotel.

See the pattern yet ? The patsy always worked in the building where the motorcade has to take a slow turn. The same in Dallas, the same in Chicago, the same in Tampa.

[taterjay]

It has taken many years to digest but the old saying is sadly true.....There ain’t no coincedences in politics.

That is our delemma..one side will do what it takes to keep power and control.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“assuming the ground is level “

Yes, somebody else pointed out that this is a hilly part of PA.

[bitt]

p

[Blurb2350]

About the water tower . . . There’s clearly (if blurry) a human figure on the water tower. Hal Turner reported yesterday that residents living near the tower saw a man come down from the tower immediately after the shooting using a zipline! He got into a black SUV and sped off. A witness took down the license; it was registered to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Make of that what you will.

[hal ogen]

Planned...intentional...blown. The coverup is ongoing.

[piasa]

Who are these “experts?” How do we know they are “experts” and not just some guys who at other times also try to persuade people they are experts at identifying sasquatch vocalizations for late night radio shows?

You don’t have to actually be an expert to make the claims and persuade a large number of nonexperts who don’t have the means, time or interest to check that your assertions and qualifications to make those assertions are real...and it is even easier to fool people who already want to believe what you are selling to also believe you are an expert. It is just a matter of bias confirmation.

[The Great RJ]

We will likely never know the truth as any government “investigation” will reach the foregone conclusion that Crooks, a 20 year old lone wolf, plotted, planned and executed the shooting without any assistance…case closed …move along citizens nothing to see here. Nothing however, will remove the culpability of the Secret Service who utterly failed to protect Trump. The timing of the assassination attempt, just days before the RNC convention, was specifically picked to do the maximum damage to the Republican Party and their winning the election. What is important is that by Divine Providence, Trump was very narrowly missed by what would have been a fatal head wound. The failure of this assassination plot almost certainly assures Trump will be elected in November. This could have been the equivalent of the Deep State’s Picketts Charge

[grey_whiskers]

“Is the second shooter a security officer (e.g. sniper)? If not, who the heck is the other shooter?”

Early betting is the water tower.

[ptsal]

bkmk

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Who are these "experts"?

Fair enough question. I, too, have the same skepticism when the media calls people "experts." But these guys are the real deal:

1. Catalin Grigoras, Director of the National Center for Media Forensics at the University of Colorado in Denver and Associate Professor.

As Associate Professor and Director of the National Center for Media Forensics, Grigoras has the privilege to coordinate the Center’s activity, including education and scientific projects. His research encompasses digital signal processing in forensic multimedia, including digital recording authentication, audio/image analysis, enhancement, and automatic speaker recognition. His research into digital signal processing has resulted in advanced methods to authenticate digital audio/video recordings and semiautomatic systems for forensic speaker recognition.

Grigoras was chairman of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes – Forensic Speech and Audio Analysis Working Group from 2007-2009. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) – Digital and Multimedia Sciences Section; and the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE) – Audio Committee.

He has published numerous forensic audio/video articles and is a co-author of Best Practice Guidelines for ENF Analysis in Forensic Authentication of Digital Evidence (2009). Funding sponsors include Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

catalin.grigoras@ucdenver.edu
(303) 315-7400
CU Denver
Arts Building
1150 10th Street
Denver, CO 80204

2. Cole Whitecotton, Senior Professional Research Associate, also at Media Forensics

As both a Senior Professional Research Assistant and Academic Services Professional for the National Center for Media Forensics, Cole Whitecotton is integral in the Center’s ongoing research and programmatic development. As an alumnus of the master’s program, he is proud to give back via teaching and leveraging new technologies to expand and strengthen students’ experiences as they forge their own paths into the digital and multimedia forensic disciplines. Whitecotton’s research areas include recompression effects on video (especially YouTube compression),

anti-forensic manipulations, digital signal processing in forensic multimedia, audio/image analysis and enhancement, and specialization in hardware and computer configurations. Funding sponsors include U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE), and working towards membership with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS).

cole.whitecotton@ucdenver.edu

---

So, what's your opinion of these experts?

[gloryblaze]

About Crooks’ parents ... Crooks had been researching the shooter, Ethan Crumbley. Crumbley’s parents are in the can for not keeping the weapon away from Ethan. It seems that Crooks may have wanted to get his folks in trouble, too, even beyond the obvious heartache of his crime and death, or he would have bought his own AR-15 “Style.”

[Saintgermain]

I don’t believe in conspiracy theories however I have the feeling that our ever so trustworthy, honest and forthright government in some form or another had their fingers in it. As for myself I wouldn’t trust them in an empty basement. Let’s face it, by nature most politicians have to be skilled liars as if they would tell people the truth hardly anyone would vote for them.

[Humbug]

Good points. Additionally, the article relies heavily on Crooks being “not a great shot”. From what i understand Crooks was described as a terrible shot when trying out for a HS rifle team. But that was years earlier and not making the team could have motivated him to get better. And of course dreaming about assassinating Trump would further motivate him to get better.

So we have no idea how good of a shooter he was that day. Odds are though that he felt pretty confident he could hit his target. After all, he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory (as he in his sick mind imagined would be the case if he took out Trump).

[cgbg]

Excellent posts—Patsy creation and ongoing maintenance was done in the CIA’s Counterintelligence shop run by James Jesus Angleton.

They were “tools” to be used when and if needed.

The guy was brilliant and devious and yeah a bit crazy.

More little known Angleton history:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/12/05/the-secret-ceremony/d8d30dab-fe95-4ba0-b52f-c50a04795b77/

[OldHarbor]

Well I would bet the Iranians would have a much better planned operation than this cluster hump.

The Deep state , in their need to have a patsy, tripped over their own feet . Somehow, even their own shooter , (not Crooks), messed up.

Trump turning his head nullified what would have been a fatal wound .

I honestly think the shooter(s) were gobsmacked and in disbelief for a brief moment, Trump’s miraculous survival threw them off of their game.

[antceecee]

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[PGalt]

BUMP