SWAT snipers at the July 13 attack against Trump say they didn't have
contact with the Secret Service.

They told ABC that the first time they communicated with agents on the
ground was after the shooting.

Meanwhile, NYT published texts that show the snipers spotted the gunman
hours before the shooting.

The local SWAT team assigned to guard former President Donald Trump's rally
on July 13 said it had "no communication" with the Secret Service before a
gunman tried to assassinate him.

"We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service
members whenever they arrived, and that never happened," Jason Woods, a lead
sharpshooter on the Beaver County, Pennsylvania SWAT team, told ABC News.

"So I think that was probably a pivotal point, where I started thinking
things were wrong because it never happened," he said. "We had no
communication."

In an interview published by ABC on Sunday, Woods and his team members said
the first time they communicated with Secret Service agents on the ground
was only after the shooting.

"It was too late," Woods said.

Their comments add to a growing chorus of questions about the communication
among national and local agencies that allowed such a serious security lapse
to transpire.

The Secret Service's press team did not immediately respond to a request for
comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

In a statement to ABC, a spokesperson declined to respond to Woods'
allegations and said that the agency "is committed to better understanding
what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former
President Trump to ensure that never happens again."

Woods' team included countersnipers stationed at the American Glass Research
building, which was used as a staging area for local law enforcement
supporting the Secret Service's security.

The New York Times on Sunday published several text messages among
countersnipers there, which showed that they identified the gunman, Thomas
Crooks, at least two hours before the shooting.

"Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars, just so you
know," the message said. The countersniper then reported that Crooks had
moved to a picnic table "about 50 yards from the exit."

An hour later, a countersniper took photos of Crooks and said they believed
the gunman brought a rangefinder. Those photos later went viral on social
media.

"If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out," countersniper wrote in a
message, calling in the potential threat to the command center.

They added that they had lost sight of Crooks, per the texts published by
The Times.

But The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Secret Service members on
Trump's detail complained they never received the warning from the
countersnipers in the AGR building.

It cited three unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Crooks would later climb onto the roof of the AGR building and open fire on
Trump. The FBI confirmed on Friday that the former president's ear was
struck by a bullet, "whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces."

The aftermath of the assassination attempt, which put Trump within inches of
losing his life, has been a reckoning for the Secret Service. The agency has
been slammed for what former agents and advisers say was a complete security
failure.

"The assassination attempt of former President Trump on July 13th is the
most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades,"
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle said on July 22.

Cheatle resigned the next day, after days of criticism leveled at her and
her organization.

https://www.businessinsider.com/swat-sniper-donald-trump-shooting-butler-
not-briefed-secret-service-2024-7

>
>SWAT snipers at the July 13 attack against Trump say they didn't have
>contact with the Secret Service.
>

That's good isn't it? I watched it on TV and it looks like Trump should
have stepped a little to the right. A direct hit would have been far more
convincing than that stupid razor scratch on his ear lobe.