It’s been 10 days since a would-be assassin shot former President Donald Trump in the ear, killed former fire chief Corey Comperatore, and wounded two other men during a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. While investigators and lawmakers alike continue to seek answers as to the serious security failures that led to the horrific event, more details are emerging, including videos from the scene.
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On Tuesday afternoon, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) shared bodycam footage taken shortly after the incident on his Twitter/X account. Grassley has marked the footage (appropriately) as “Sensitive Content,” so I’m including the link to his tweet, along with an embed of the video (below) shared by other accounts on the platform.
In his tweet, Grassley stated:
SENSITIVE CONTENT: July 13 Bodycam footage provides more info than Secret Service will share w America We NEED detailed answers ASAP on security failures TRANSPARENCY BRINGS ACCOUNTABILITYVid obtained from Beaver Co Emergency Services Unit in compliance w congressional requests
Grassley also shared a follow-up tweet:
NEW My office has obtained docs from law enforcement on July 13 assassination attempt of Pres Trump I’m writing Secret Service Acting Dir Rowe & DHS Scty Mayorkas AGAIN 2get badly needed answers/clarity
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The attached letter from Grassley to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe reads, in part:
I write to you to again request the Secret Service operational security plan, and related records, for the July 13, 2024, campaign event held by former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. My office has received records related to the apparent location of some law enforcement posts during the July 13, 2024, event to include Butler County and Beaver County Emergency Services Units (ESU) with assignment at the AGR building. My office has also obtained the below color-coded document indicating what appears to be some state law enforcement sectors for the Trump rally and the document notes each sector is highlighted by “order of importance.” Is this document accurate? Did local law enforcement have the shared responsibility with Secret Service to cover the AGR building? To better understand the full security posture of the event, the Secret Service must provide equivalent records.
…
Additional records I’ve obtained show that a Secret Service Counter Unmanned Aerial System(UAS) operator was on the personnel list assigned to the July 13, 2024 event, and then-Director Cheatle testified yesterday that “there are times during a security plan that the Secret Service does deploy an asset like a drone.” Yet, it’s reported that the gunman flew a video-capable drone over the event site hours before former President Trump took the stage, which may have helped him plan the attack. Is that reporting accurate? Is the below document accurate?
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The letter requests further information and documentation to be produced by July 30.
The video which Grassley shared is bodycam footage provided by the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit. It appears to show four ESU officers speaking with a man in a suit (appears to be Secret Service or, at minimum, federal law enforcement) on the roof of the AGR building, next to the body of the deceased shooter. A female uniformed officer (“Michelle”) is also present on the roof but away from the group conversing.
The officer wearing the bodycam confirms to the suited man that the downed shooter is the same man that the Beaver County sniper photographed and sent pictures out (presumably when he was identified as a suspicious person). One of the ESU officers points out the rifle, which is several feet away from the shooter on the roof.
There is a discussion regarding whether the shooter had been on a bike that was then being treated as a “suspicious device.” The bodycam officer indicates he believes the Beaver County sniper is inside the AGR building, directing the man in the suit to go to the window and yell for “Greg,” whom he says saw the shooter come from the bike and set it down before he lost sight of him.
There’s also a discussion about two other people detained on the other side of the building. Per the man in the suit, those people were filming other officers (possibly Secret Service?), then filming the shooter on the roof, but then ran away when shots were fired. He acknowledged they could have just been running because of the shots — it’s not clear they were involved.
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The man in the suit then confirms there were three victims in the crowd: one deceased and two Life-Flighted. The man takes a phone call and there is a call heard over one of the ESU officer’s radios requesting access to a drone “to clear this water tower.”
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
What’s clear from the video, with six people standing on it and (relatively) calmly discussing the incident, is that the “sloped roof” excuse initially offered by then-Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle as to why the roof where the shooter perched was not secured was a canard. That alone should have prompted her firing several days ago.
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That Cheatle has now resigned does nothing to obviate the issue. As many have observed — including Cheatle herself — this was a colossal failure. Hopefully, Grassley and the others seeking answers will receive them. And soon.
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