Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe Jr. said Tuesday he's losing sleep over the agency's failure to find the man who flew a drone ahead of an attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
Thomas Michael Crooks flew the drone over Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, for 11 minutes near the former president's podium at around 3:50 p.m., hours before Trump took the stage. according to At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa asked Rowe why the Secret Service hadn't installed a system to track Crooks' drone, The New York Times reported. The acting director of the Secret Service said it was “inexplicable” and that the issue was keeping him up at night. (Related: Security was stationed on rooftop used by Trump rally shooter, but it was reportedly abandoned due to “hot weather.”)
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Acting Secret Service Director says Trump assassination attempt has 'lost sleep' pic.twitter.com/KOF2XMWErM
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“According to the Secret Service, the Secret Service deployed an Unmanned Aerial System operator on July 13th. The drone system was scheduled to be operational at 3pm that day,” Grassley said. “However, we have heard from the Secret Service that due to cellular bandwidth issues, it was not operational until approximately 5:20pm that day. If the system had been operational, the Secret Service would have been able to detect the shooter and his use of the drone. Why is the Secret Service relying on local cellular networks? Does the Secret Service have a backup plan?”
“It's… I've lost a lot of sleep because of the perpetrator's final outcome. If we had located him, the counter [unmanned aerial system] “Was the platform up? I have a hard time understanding it, I can't explain it,” Rowe said. “I feel like maybe they could have found him, maybe they could have stopped him.”
Crooks killed former volunteer fire chief Cory Comperatore in the attack, which also injured two rally attendees and the former president.
“Maybe that day he decided that because the police had caught me flying a drone, today was not the day to do it,” Rowe continued. “People fly drones all the time around our property. We go out and talk to them and see what their intentions are.”
Lowe added that going forward, the Secret Service will “leverage resources, including the Department of Homeland Security, to have dedicated connections rather than relying on the public domain to ensure that whatever assets are deployed, those assets are operational.”
Kimberly Cheatle, director of the U.S. Secret Service, recently resigned following an assassination attempt and her avoidance of testifying before Congress.
“I take full responsibility for any security failings,” Cheatle said in an email to staff obtained by The Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as director.”
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