Secret Service Missed 102 Warnings Before Trump was Shot

The U.S. Secret Service ignored or failed to receive more than 100 radio warnings and left a known security vulnerability wide open before a gunman opened fire on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, according to a blistering new government watchdog report.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General concluded that the agency “missed multiple opportunities” to prevent or disrupt the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The 64-page report paints a disturbing picture of poor planning, broken communication and security failures that allowed 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to climb onto a nearby roof and fire eight shots toward Trump as he addressed thousands of supporters.

Trump was struck in the ear, rallygoer Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed and two other spectators were critically wounded.

“The Secret Service’s overall lack of policy and processes coupled with limited intelligence sharing and poor collaboration and communication with protectee staff and state and local law enforcement set the conditions that led to missing opportunities to prevent and detect the attempted assassination,” the report stated.

One of the most alarming failures involved radio communication.

According to investigators, Secret Service personnel missed 102 radio transmissions as local officers desperately searched for an increasingly suspicious man near the rally site.

Those warnings reportedly included information that Crooks had been seen with a range finder, was carrying a long gun and had climbed onto the roof of a building overlooking Trump’s stage.

Yet Trump’s protective detail was never told to delay the speech or remove him from the stage.

Secret Service agents and local law enforcement officers were operating from separate command posts located about 257 yards apart, with only limited and unreliable radio communication between them.

Because the Secret Service communications room received only a handful of phone calls and text messages, agents allegedly failed to understand just how serious the threat had become.

Former Secret Service agent Paul Eckloff said the agency never should have accepted the risks surrounding the Butler rally site.

“Communications was a problem because of inoperability. There were too many command posts,” Eckloff told Fox News Digital.

“The biggest failure that is probably not addressed in the OIG report is that they never should have accepted the risk of doing it at this site. It never should have been done. That roof had an egregious line of site.”

The report also revealed that Crooks flew a drone near the rally grounds less than three hours before the shooting.

He reportedly operated the drone undetected for nearly nine minutes, flying it about 471 yards from the stage at an altitude of 102 feet.

The Secret Service had a counter-drone system at the event, but investigators said the equipment malfunctioned and the operator had not been adequately trained.

The system was not operational when Crooks conducted his apparent surveillance flight.

Investigators also found that the agency failed to properly share intelligence about a possible long-range threat against Trump with the Pittsburgh field office and agents assigned to the rally.

Perhaps most troubling, Secret Service officials had already identified the roof of the American Glass Research International complex as a potential line-of-sight danger during advance security walkthroughs.

Despite recognizing that risk, the agency failed to make sure Crooks’ view of Trump’s podium was blocked.

Officials had reportedly proposed placing trucks in the area to obstruct the view from the building. However, Trump campaign staff rejected the original location because the vehicles could interfere with press photographs.

An agent then suggested placing the trucks somewhere else but never confirmed that the equipment had actually been moved into position.

That failure left Crooks with an unobstructed view of Trump from only about 155 yards away.

“There should have been a better advance, more officers, more agents, but there’s simply a limit to that,” Eckloff said.

Crooks ultimately fired eight rounds before Secret Service counter-snipers killed him.

Video from the horrifying attack showed Trump grabbing his injured ear and dropping behind the podium before agents surrounded him and rushed him from the stage.

As blood streaked across his face, Trump raised his fist toward the crowd and shouted, “Fight!”

The image quickly became one of the defining moments of the 2024 presidential campaign.

The new report recommends major changes within the Secret Service, including mandatory threat-sharing procedures, better counter-drone training and a formal process for identifying and blocking dangerous lines of sight at public events.

The findings are likely to fuel further outrage among Republicans who have spent nearly two years demanding answers about how a gunman was able to get so close to Trump despite repeated warnings from officers and rally attendees.

Fox News Digital said it contacted the Secret Service and the White House for comment.