Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino made a stunning revelation about security failures which led to former president Donald Trump coming within inches of being assassinated.
During an appearance on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast “Triggered,” Bongino revealed that the rooftop from which the failed Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks fired shots, was supposed to be covered by law enforcement personnel.
Bongino revealed he was told this by an “unimpeachable source” who was knowledgeable about the situation.
“That post, according to my source, that roof was supposed to be a police post. It was supposed to be someone there,” he said.
“They’re now making up excuses, saying the pitch of the roof… my source says to me, no one knows why the post didn’t show up,” Bongino revealed.
He added that Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle has been instructed by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to “keep her mouth shut if she wants to remain in her post.
Cheatle has refused to resign from her post following the aftermath of the assassination attempt.
The Secret Service identified a high-profile security vulnerability in the building but failed to protect the rooftop.
Moreover, security forces did not take notice of Crooks roughly 30 minutes before the shooting.
One law enforcement asset even managed to snap a photo of the suspect, though he was not confronted.
Cheatle attempted to explain why the rooftop wasn’t covered.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” the Secret Service director said in a statement to ABC News.
“And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
“They’re not putting that out there. But if you get those site post logs and those police instructions and it was a post on there and they didn’t show up and no one checked, someone could have got your dad killed,” Bongino said. “Within millimeters.”
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Bongino said he would be revealing more details on his podcast.
“You’re telling me the best technology you have was deployed and you missed a shooter 130 yards? Say it was 200 yards,” Bongino told Fox News.
The Secret Service CS team, Pete, the counter-sniper team? And I’m not sure those two guys are Secret Service. We have to remember that we don’t always, when we go to New York sometimes with high-level protectees we’ll use NYPD ESU counter-sniper. So I’m not really sure.”
“Either way, they’d still be briefed in. The question we have to ask is, if that’s the best technology we have, and we had a CS team up there with a shooter that, you know, we’re trained out to a thousand yards in the Secret Service with the counter-sniper team. How did they miss someone at most, you know, one-fifth of the way there? It doesn’t make any sense.”
