Former Secret Service agent explains potential security lapses in Trump assassination attempt

OAKLAND - The Secret Service security planning, areas of responsibility, and communication between Secret Service agents and local law enforcement officers are all under intense scrutiny, as investigators try to determine how a security lapse allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania to climb onto the roof of a building outside the security perimeter of a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fire shots at former President Donald Trump from about 147 yards away.

Jeff James, a former Secret Service agent says typically, Secret Service protection works in concentric circles around the person being protected, with an inner perimeter of agents steps away, followed by a middle perimeter with agents and local law enforcement. He says one of the big questions that needs to be answered is whether the Secret Service agents in charge of preparing the security communicated a plan with local law enforcement officers to watch that building outside the perimeter.

"That site agent should have given one of those personnel very clear, strict, codified instructions. Hey, this is your responsibility, don't let anybody up there," James said. "If that happened, and that local law enforcement official was distracted or chose not to hold that post, then that's the fault of them. But if that agent didn't give clear, concise, codified instructions, then that is the fault of that agent."

More information is emerging about Crooks, who reportedly told his manager at the nursing home, where he was a dietary aide, that he wouldn't be at work Saturday because he had something to do.

His parents reported that he was missing to local police and said they were worried. It is not clear whether Crooks' parents knew if he had taken his father's AR-15 rifle.

Investigators have learned crooks bought ammunition, went to a local shooting range, and bought a ladder at Home Depot before the rally.

Sources say police were notified about Crooks, who was seen before the rally, acting suspiciously. He was spotted with a rangefinder, a device used by hunters to measure distances.

Minutes before the shooting, witnesses took cell phone video pointing to Crooks who was seen on the roof of the building outside the security perimeter, about 147 yards from the former president.

James said another important question is why the usual communication to the central command center security room seemed to have failed.

"Somebody sees somebody on the roof. They radio and say hey security room, I got a guy on the roof over here. Everybody in there sees it or hears it rather, and then they push it out to their respective agencies on their frequency and everyone reacts appropriately," James said. "Did those kind of communications come through? And if they did, what was the reaction in real time, because everything is recorded digitally down to the second."

A new photo obtained by a Pittsburgh news station shows Crooks' cell phone and a gray remote transmitter that were retrieved next to his body after he was shot by a Secret Service sniper. Investigators found explosive-type materials in Crooks' car, which may have been intended to be detonated remotely.  

A briefing on the investigation was scheduled for all Senators Wednesday with FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The House Oversight Committee sent a subpoena to the director of the Secret Service to appear at a hearing next week.