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Trump assassination attempt: Texts reveal officers were aware of Thomas Crooks 90 minutes before shooting


Sarah Rumpf-Whitten By Sarah Rumpf-WhittenDanielle Wallace Fox News | Published July 29, 2024, 10:49am EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-assassination-attempt-texts-reveal-officers-were-aware-thomas-crooks-90-minutes-before-shooting

BUTLER, Pa. – Text messages revealed that law enforcement responsible for monitoring former President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally spotted his would-be assassin and flagged him to colleagues as suspicious at least 90 minutes before he opened fire.

The messages, obtained by Fox News Digital from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who obtained them from Beaver County Emergency Services Unit, showed that officers flagged 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks after he was spotted using a range finder – but did not approach him.

The first screenshot is a group chat of Beaver ESU officers, while the second is from one Beaver County sniper departing his shift at around 4:30 – approximately an hour-and-a-half before Trump took the stage. The New York Times first reported the text screenshots.

TRUMP SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW GUNMAN EVADED SECURITY

Undated file photo of Thomas Matthew Crooks

Undated file photo of Thomas Matthew Crooks. Crooks is alleged to be the shooter in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)

Text message

Texts messages reveal local snipers saw gunman earlier than previously known. (Fox News)

In a group chat, around 4:36 p.m., when one of the officers texted that his shift was ending, he warned that a man, later identified as Crooks, had parked nearby their vehicle.

“Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know,” the text from an officer read.

Text message

The messages, obtained by Fox News Digital from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who obtained them from Beaver ESU, provided an updated timeline of when law enforcement first spotted Thomas Matthew Crooks. The texts included a picture of Crooks. (Fox News)

A follow-up message said that Crooks was about 50 yards from the rally’s exit, sitting at a picnic table. Two other counter-snipers responded with a thumbs up emoji and responded, writing, “Roger that.”

Approximately 45 minutes later, at 5:10 p.m., officers flagged that Crooks was on the move and had positioned himself near the American Glass International (AGR) building. Crooks would later perch himself on top of the AGR building to target the former president.

Text message and picture of Thomas Crooks

Law enforcement circulated a picture of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the texts showed. (Fox News)

Text messages between law enforcement

Screenshots of text messages between local law enforcement officers. (Fox News)

While Crooks waited, an officer snapped a picture of the 20-year-old suspect. The picture showed Crooks leaning against the AGR building with his signature greasy shoulder-length hair and gray t-shirt.

“Kid learning around building we are in,” an officer wrote in a text message, along with an image of Crooks. “AGR I believe it is. I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out.”

“I lost sight of him,” the officer added.

A follow-up message said: “Call it in to command and have a uniform check it out.”

Law enforcement officers stand over the body of would-be Trump assassin, Thomas Crooks on the roof of a building
Law enforcement officers stand over the body of would-be Trump assassin, Thomas Crooks on Saturday, July 13, 2024. The gunman killed at least one person and injured the former president in his attempt. (Todd the Driller)

The newly surfaced texts show that authorities knew about the suspicious person, later identified as Crooks, close to 90 minutes before the shooting – updating the previous known time of about 60 minutes.

By 6:11 p.m., approximately 1 hour after the last text message was sent, the “kid” would be killed by a counter-sniper after he opened fired on the rally goers.

Donald Trump kisses the helmet of Corey Comperatore during the Republican National Convention
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump kisses the helmet of Corey Comperatore during the Republican National Convention Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee.  (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
James Copenhaver and David Dutch
James Copenhaver and David Dutch were shot and injured at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally. (Allegheny Health Network)

Trump was grazed by a bullet on his ear, while three rallygoers were also shot, including Corey Comperatore, 50, who was killed protecting his family from danger. David Dutch and James Copenhaver were injured after being shot at the rally. Copenhaver was recently released from the hospital on Friday.

Dutch was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, July 24. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Secret Service for comment.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. 

She is a native of Massachusetts and is based in Orlando, Florida.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to sarah.rumpf@fox.com and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten.

Majority of Trump security detail were not Secret Service, whistleblowers tell Sen. Hawley


By Timothy H.J. Nerozzi Fox News | Published July 19, 2024 1:12pm EDT

Read more at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/majority-trump-security-detail-were-not-secret-service-whistleblowers-tell-sen-hawley

Whistleblowers inside the Department of Homeland Security have alleged that the majority of the security detail for former President Donald Trump were “not even Secret Service,” according to a Republican lawmaker. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri relayed these claims in a public letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Friday outlining a series of security failures at Trump’s fateful Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.

“Whistleblowers who have direct knowledge of the event have approached my office. According to the allegations, the July 13 rally was considered to be a ‘loose’ security event,” Hawley wrote in the letter. “For example, detection canines were not used to monitor entry and detect threats in the usual manner. Individuals without proper designations were able to gain access to backstage areas.”

SECRET SERVICE ‘CHECK-THE-BOX’ SENATE BRIEFING LEAVES QUESTIONS: ‘INFURIATING’

Josh Hawley and Alejandro Mayorkas
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., (left) and Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas (right). (Getty Images)

Other lapses in security protocol allegedly included a lack of personnel stationed around the security perimeter and an inadequately enforced buffer zone around the podium.

Among the most troubling is the claim that the majority of personnel protecting the former president were not U.S. Secret Service (USSS) agents.

“Whistleblower allegations suggest the majority of DHS officials were not in fact USSS agents but instead drawn from the department’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI),” Hawley wrote. “This is especially concerning given that HSI agents were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events, according to the allegations.”

SECRET SERVICE EQUITY DIRECTOR SAYS DEI AGENDA IS A ‘MISSION IMPERATIVE,’ THE ‘ULTIMATE GOAL’

The Missouri senator criticized the DHS for failing to provide information about the incident to Congress and “abruptly ending the only call with USSSS before most senators could even ask a question.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., previously detailed the Secret Service briefing given to senators on Wednesday about the recent assassination attempt against former President Trump, saying there had been “virtually no information” provided. 

“The director of the Secret Service did admit there were mistakes and gaffes,” Johnson said, referring to Kimberly Cheatle. But the briefing, which was given by a separate official, “was largely irrelevant,” according to Johnson. Only four senators were allowed to ask questions and there were no follow-ups, he said. 

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Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by security personnel after being shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Hawley’s letter demands answers to a series of questions relevant to the claims made by the whistleblowers, including the ratio of USSS to HSI agents and pre-rally security investigations.

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at timothy.nerozzi@fox.com

Biden DHS Board Painted Trump Supporters, Military, and Religious People as Potential Terror Risk, Docs Show


By: Ailan Evans | June 24, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/06/24/biden-dhs-board-painted-trump-supporters-military-and-religious-people-as-potential-terror-risk-docs-show/

Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer as he arrives to speak at a campaign event in Racine, Wisconsin, on June 18, 2024. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

Department of Homeland Security advisory board characterized supporters of former President Donald Trump, as well as those who are in the military and religious people, as posing potential domestic terrorism risks, according to internal documents obtained by America First Legal.

The board, called the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group, was created in September 2023 to provide DHS with “expert” analysis on subjects such as terrorism and fentanyl trafficking. The panel included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe, all of whom signed an October 2020 letter casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop and suggesting its release was a Russian disinformation ploy.

Internal documents obtained by America First Legal show the board characterizing “supporters of the former president” as constituting “most of the Domestic Terrorism threat” in the United States. The documents also classified traits such as having served “in the military” and being “religious” as “indicators of extremists and terrorism,” citing unnamed research.

Military personnel are less likely to be supporters of radical political causes than other Americans, according to a 2023 RAND Corp. study. Nevertheless, suspicions of extremism in the military were popular among Democrats in the wake of the Jan. 6 riots, as 15 Democrat lawmakers signed a letter in 2021 urging Inspector General Sean O’Donnell to “take action on this wave of violent extremism” in the military.

America First Legal on Thursday released the first collection of documents that detailed the committee’s desire to increase information collection on Americans, including getting “mothers” and “teachers” to report on children suspected of extremism under the pretext of “public health.” The committee cited the model of the “See Something, Say Something” campaign after 9/11, which was an initiative by the DHS to encourage American citizens to report potential terror threats.

The DHS panel was shut down following a lawsuit from America First Legal in conjunction with former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell. The lawsuit alleged the group violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which governs how federal advisory committees can legally operate.

Brennan and Clapper were also signatories of the 2020 letter that alleged the Hunter Biden laptop contents may have been part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The contents of the laptop were verified by the Daily Caller News Foundation along with other media outlets.

The DHS did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation

Ann Coulter Letter: GOP Baffled As Voters Rally to Popular Candidate


waving flagCommentary by  Ann Coulter  | 

URL of the original posting site: http://humanevents.com/2016/02/17/gop-baffled-as-voters-rally-to-popular-candidate/?utm_source=coulterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

GOP Baffled As Voters Rally to Popular Candidate

Donald Trump’s latest bombshell, claiming the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to get us into the Iraq War, is just him doing wheelies on the way to the nomination. He’s apparently decided it would be fun to taunt the entire GOP by demonstrating that he can say anything and his voters won’t care.

I wish he’d stop showing off, the little scamp, but maybe the GOP establishment will finally get the message that voters have been waiting a really long time for a candidate who would put Americans first. Not donors, not plutocrats, not foreigners, and certainly not foreign plutocrats (i.e., Fox News). 

Trump is the first presidential candidate in 50 years who might conceivably:

(1) deport illegal aliens,

(2) build a wall,

(3) block Muslim immigration,

(4) flout political correctness,

(5) bring manufacturing home, and

(6) end the GOP’s neurotic compulsion to start wars in some godforsaken part of the world.

That’s all that matters! Are you listening yet, RNC?

There is not another candidate who agrees with Trump on all these positions. Maybe one issue, but not all of them — and if it’s immigration, they would be lying.

Even Ted Cruz still refuses to say he’d deport illegal aliens (unless they’re arrested for breaking some other law), build a wall (instead he talks about “border security,” which is code for: No Wall), or reduce legal immigration at all.

Trump is like a greatest-hits album. The two political parties are the record companies, refusing to put all the hits on one album and instead forcing us to choose between Republicans who will depress wages through immigration and bad trade deals, or Democrats who pretend to care about working-class Americans while sacralizing abortion and gay marriage.All about the vote

Trump is right about President Bush not keeping us safe — though not about his “Bush lied” argument that makes me want to strangle him. This is what Trump said last October on “Coyote News Sunday” (FNC) about how things would have been different on 9/11 under President Trump:

“Well, I would have been much different, I must tell you. … I am extremely, extremely tough on illegal immigration. I’m extremely tough on people coming into this country. I believe that if I were running things, I doubt … that those people would have been in the country.”

And that was before Trump announced his plan for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration! (By contrast, as governor of Florida, Jeb! aggressively pushed a bill to allow illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses, less than three years AFTER 13 of 19 hijackers used Florida driver’s licenses to board the planes on 9/11.)

It is apparently considered less controversial to send a million troops to the Middle East than to stop printing visas for would-be terrorists.

It’s not just George W. Bush’s open-borders policy that cries out for re-examination. During a debate with Al Gore one year before the 9/11 attack — committed by Arabs on U.S. commercial airlines — he pre-emptively denounced the racial profiling of Arabs by airport security.

The Wall Street Journal proclaimed that “the ‘racial profiling’ issue might help Bush win Michigan.” (Good call, WSJ! Bush lost Michigan, anyway.)

In June 2001 — three months before the attack committed by Arabs on U.S. commercial airlines — the Bush administration undertook a study to ensure that Arabs were not being disproportionately stopped by airport security.

When U.S. Airways ticket agent Michael Tuohey laid eyes on Mohamed Atta on the morning of 9/11, he got a “chill” and thought to himself, “If this guy doesn’t look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does.” But then, he says, he gave himself a politically correct “slap,” and handed Atta his ticket.

Atta proceeded to murder 3,000 Americans. But at least no undue scrutiny of Arabs was taking place at U.S. Airports!

The Marco Rubios, Nikki Haleys, Paul Ryans, Jeb!, Zeppo and Shemp Bushes of the GOP say: “Vote for me — we may have a terrorist attack, but at least we’ll know we did the right thing!” Trump says: “I’m going to protect you.”

That’s why it doesn’t matter when Trump pops off and says things that are not conservative orthodoxy — or even true! Even if you think Trump is a libertine, shallow narcissist, you know he will do what no other Republican will: Go to Washington, kick ass, mock political correctness, build a wall, deport illegals, bring manufacturing home, and end the GOP’s peculiar fixation with remaking the Muslim world.

This is our last chance. It’s similar to the “point of no return” global warming alarmists keep talking about, except our data isn’t fake.

At our current rate of immigration/transformation, if we don’t break the donor fever grip now, we never will. This kind of correction isn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s a once-in-a-millennium opportunity.AMEN

The GOP didn’t hear us with Eric Cantor, with the 2014 election or with John Boehner. After all that, they still gave us Nikki Haley and Paul Ryan. President Trump is the last and only message they will understand.

no more rinos stupid Picture1 In God We Trust freedom combo 2

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