- The SWAT sniper who attacked President Trump on July 13 said he had no contact with the Secret Service.
- They told ABC their first contact with investigators on the ground was after the shooting.
- Meanwhile, The New York Times published a story indicating that the sniper had spotted the gunman hours before the attack.
A local special forces SWAT team assigned to provide security at former President Donald Trump’s rally on July 13 said they had “no contact” with the Secret Service before the gunman attempted to assassinate Trump.
“Every time a member of the Secret Service arrived, there was supposed to be a face-to-face interview, but that never happened,” Jason Woods, lead sniper for Pennsylvania’s Beaver County SWAT team, told ABC News.
“So I think that was probably the defining moment, because nothing was happening and I started to think something was wrong,” he said. “We had no communication.”
In an interview published by ABC on Sunday, Woods said he and other team members first had contact with Secret Service agents on the ground after the shooting.
“It was too late,” Woods said.
Their comments further raise questions about the communication between state and local agencies that allowed such serious safety failures to occur.
The Secret Service’s public affairs team did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside of regular business hours.
In a statement to ABC, a spokesperson declined to respond to Woods’ allegations, saying authorities are “committed to gaining a better understanding of what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt on former President Trump so that this never happens again.”
Woods’ team also included a counter-sniper who was stationed at the American Glass Research building, which was used as a base for local police providing security for the Secret Service.
The New York Times published text messages on Sunday between local counter-sniper forces that showed they had identified the shooter, Thomas Crooks, at least two hours before the shooting.
“Someone snuck in after us and parked next to our vehicle, just to be safe,” the message read. The counter-shooter then reported that Crooks had moved to a picnic table “about 50 yards from the exit.”
An hour later, a counter-sniper took a photo of Crooks, who he said appeared to be carrying a rangefinder, which was later shared on social media.
“If you want to alert SS snipers,” the countersniper wrote in the message, calling the command center to the potential threat.
They added that they had lost sight of Crooks, according to documents published by The Times.
But The Washington Post reported on Sunday that members of the Secret Service guarding President Trump have complained that they haven’t received warnings from anti-sniper units at the AGR Building.
The paper cited three anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
The gunmen then climbed to the roof of the AGR building and opened fire on Trump, with the FBI confirming on Friday that a bullet struck the former president in the ear, saying it was “unclear whether the bullet was whole or broke into smaller pieces.”
The aftermath of the near-fatal assassination attempt on President Trump has been a blow to the Secret Service, which has been accused of a complete security failure, according to former employees and advisers.
“The July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump was the Secret Service’s most significant operational failure in decades,” Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said on July 22.
Cheatle resigned the next day after days of criticism directed at her and her organization.
