Right now on Ana Cabrera reports, we are covering several breaking reports including in new York City. Details of the sweeping Corruption Investigation in gotham. Then helene moving closer to the coast with millions in its path. Lets move to the probe looking into the trump attempted assassination, this is lieutenant John Herald with the Pennsylvania State police. Lets listen in. On friday, july 5th, the Secret Service notified psp that the former President Trump would take place or a rally would take place in butler. On monday, july 8th, i and other commanders attended the initial Planning Meeting and visited the site multiple times and completed a Psp Operation Plan leading up to July 13th. The Pennsylvania State police provided all resources requested by the Secret Service. The Secret Service did not ask me as the officer in charge of psp to post a Car Or Trooper at the Agr International proper. Nor am i aware of the Secret Service making that question to any other psp official. The State Police were assigned, performing roving patrols. Psp was not responsible for securing the Building Or Property at Agr International. The Secret Service established and managed the primary Command Post for communication. In the office of the butler Farm Show, a Psp Sergeant under my supervision was stationed in the Secret Service Command Post to relay any communication made by psp personnel to our local and federal partners. I thank you for this opportunity to provide information about the actions of the State Police and planning, staffing, responding to the tragic events at the July 13th rally. I look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you, senator herald. Now mr. Sullivan for his opening remarks. I am patrick sullivan, retired Secret Service with 23 years of service. I am a Board Member on the Secret Service association. I am speaking for myself this morning as a subject matter expert. The information that has come to light so far regarding the Security Failures in butler is shocking and infuriating. However, i am very proud of the bravery of the agents that put themselves in harms way. I served as a secret Service Agent in many investigative and protective assignments. Make no mistake, the Secret Service Cannot Function without the state and local Law Enforcement partners. I truly believe the men and women of the Secret Service have the most difficult and unforgiving job in Law Enforcement. Its a zerofail mission. I have the utmost respect for those Agents Uniformed Division officers and staff currently facing the challenges. For a president ial visit the Secret Service must provide 360degree coverage, including the sky above and ground below. Prior to July 13th, what follows is only provided for the president. Its my understanding the advanced proceedings are to protect president biden, Vice President harris and now trump. The Field Office then notifies the relevant state and local Law Enforcement and schedules a Police Meet and its at these meetings the secret Service Advance Team is introduced and learn about the trip. The Secret Service advanced team usually consist of the following. A Lead Advance, sight advance, airport, motorcade, protective intelligence, counter assault team, Counter Surveillance Unit and technical advance components to include unmanned aerial surveillance. After the counterparts are identified the police and secret Service Work together on their assignments and develop a plan for their site. They will trim the assets needed to secure the sight. The personnel doing the Cat And Sniper Advance Work closely with the local Police S. W. A. T. Personnel. The pi advance, the Site Agent reviews the Site Security Plan and presents it to the Field Office supervisor and protective Detail Supervisor for concurrence. The Lead Advance agent is responsible for ensuring all coordinated activities are in sync. Usually there will be one overall Command Post visit and there will be a Scaled Down Version of a cp. Off the record sites are handled differently than most on the record movements. The Secret Service does not know where the president intends to visit before. Additional Security Measures are put in place after the president arrives. In closing, i would like to suggest congress consider expanding the Stash Tory Authority of the Secret Service to ensure the agency can make the most informed threats possible. The Secret Service must be certificate its receiving all relevant threat information. Currently theres no statutory requirement mandating federal, state and local agencies must report to the secret Service Information concerning threats against the president over the protectees. In my opinion, the law must clearly state such information must be provided to the Secret Service to conduct an investigation and followup. For example, the fbi has exclusive jurisdiction to investigate a conspiracy to assault or kill the president before it takes place. That should be part of all such threat investigations so we can take appropriate steps to prevent an assassination. And we need to seek the assistance of any state, local and federal investigation to help investigate an Assassination Attempt after the fact. I believe the Secret Service should have similar authority to call for such assistance to prevent an attempted assassination. That concludes my opening comments. Thank you. The witness is going to be testifying over the phone, right . Okay. Dr. Goldsmith, please. My name is dr. Goldstein. On July 13th, 2024, after the attempted assassination of former President Trump, i and my staff restaffed and offered our assistance if needed. Our assistance was needed and the bodies were transferred to our office. The office was not involved in the transportation of the decedents. The following morning on july 14th, at 9 15, i began mr. Crooks autopsy with other technicians named in my report. Gunshot Residue Test samples were lifted. My involvement in the case was limited to the autopsy in which i determined that Thomas Matthew crooks died as a result of a high Variety Gunshot Wound to the head and an Entrance Wound of the left upper lip. I had no information into his motives or evidence. Once i received the results of the Toxicology Testing which was performed by our laboratory, i completed a written Autopsy Report that was signed August 5th and delivered to Butler County. Our offices involved in the case concluded on july 22nd, 2024, when mr. Crookss body was released pursuant to the Butler County coroner. Thank you, doctor. I will recognize myself for five minutes with questions. First we will show a video to get things started. The footage you are about to see is from a dashcam on July 13th. This footage has never been released to the public and has been edited to show relevant parts. The video will be time stamped in the upper righthand corner, at eight minutes after 6 00. You will see a figure circled in red crossing the roofs of multiple Agr Buildings, and this is Thomas Matthew crooks. We lose sight of crooks but 19 seconds into the video he reappears. Again, we have circled him in red before we lose sight of him 20 seconds later. We cut the video in length so it picks up at 6 10 38. Here you will see Law Enforcement around the building, and at this point all Law Enforcement Entities Staffing are aware theres an individual on the roof of the agr but do not know hes armed. Crooks turns and points a weapon in his direction. The officer falls to the ground, injuring his ankle and radios the man on the roof is armed at eleven minutes after 6 00. We know the first shot from crooks is fired just 32 seconds later. We will play the video now. This will take about 51 seconds. I realize its hard to see some of this, so crooks, as he makes his way across the roof this is, by The Way, a Pennsylvania State Police Cruiser that has the dashcam. You were able to see Things Nobody else was able to see, but i know its difficult. Lieutenant herald, i will direct the first line of questioning to you. Footage showed crooks was on the roof of the Agr Building over three minutes before shots were fired. Please describe the few minutes leading up to the shots fired from your Vantage Point. My position when the shots were fired, i was behind the stage. I Cant Answer to any questions regarding mr. Crooks on the roof because i did not have that information. I was behind the stage. It was very loud. If it was transmitted over our portables, i did not hear that. I returned to my car briefly once the former president had taken the stage to retrieve a Cell Phone that had first net. I was returning back to the stage when the first shot rang out. Officer glasgow, same question. At that time i was working my way over to the Agr Building to assist other Butler Township units with looking for crooks as i got to the Water Tower, i parked under the Water Tower and began to make my way to agr and thats when the shots rang out. Thank you. Commander lentz, you were reportedly the first to call out shots fired over the radio. Were you aware somebody was on the roof before the shots were fired . Please describe the few minutes leading up to the shots fired through your Vantage Point . Yes, i was aware through Radio Traffic there was somebody on the roof and he was armed. The first report that there was somebody on the roof came on a different Radio Channel than the tactical units were operating, and that transition was at 18 08 was somebody was on the roof. I made a Phone Call to the sergeant in the secret Service Command Center and relayed information there was a suspect on the roof of the Agr Building. There was additional Radio Traffic from the Butler Township police units, and at 18 11 03 hours, the Butler Township unit, he says hes armed, i see him and hes laying down and has a long gun. I radioed to our quick Reaction Force to deploy them to the Agr Complex to begin to address that threat. Prior to me finishing that radio transmission, you can hear the shots being fired through my open microphone. You know, i have a problem going back to the actual sighting of mr. Crooks more than once, and way, way before 11 minutes after 6 00. I think one of the things is the panel heard from different people of different times was of the thousands people that day, theres one person that stands out throughout the day and its crooks they are talking about. We knew there was somebody suspicious and we knew there was somebody they couldnt come in contact with, and we saw him with a Range Finder and doing things that were probably not in line with what people go to a rally for. At what point did somebody say were not sure the area is secure and safe . Theres not a lot of understanding before that, and The Way you all responded was incredible and thank you for that, but i cant understand of all the people, thousands of people, theres one consistent person they identify and its ultimately the shooter, so i dont believe the grounds were safe and secure that day and i am trying to understand what it was or what it would have taken for somebody to say keep mr. Trump inside until we clear this up . Commander, you and i have had not just minutes but hours together and in a couple days we will have a deep dive into what happened. Do you think the Secret Service adequately prepared you . Well, the task they had given us, two Sniper Teams and a quick Reaction Force, and we were prepared for the missions they had given us. There were additional things, obviously, that probably needed covered but they never asked us to do that and never tasked us with that, so given what they specifically asked us to do, we were certainly prepared to do that. So you did what they asked you to do, but looking back did they clearly identify what you could have been responsible for . Same question. I took my commands from Commander Lenz, and i feel i did what was requested of me from Commander Lenz. So hindsight is always 20 20. Do you think Theres Something else i believe with the information we had we did the best we can or that we could. Lieutenant herald, you feel the Secret Service adequately prepared you and your men for the event . The Secret Service, after meeting with them at the site and going through what they requested psp to do was primarily the security of the Farm Show inside the Fence Line, so adequate troopers, i had 30 troopers inside that Fence Line once the motorcade arrived and i feel like with them being the lead and we were in a request assist function, we provided what they asked for and we secured the parameter inner parameter of the Farm Show grounds. Local Law Enforcement, i think you did everything you were tasked to do that day, and looking back and looking at the game film, would you say there were probably other things we should have been clued in on. Just asking all of you, when did you first meet with Secret Service and understanding your role that day, looking back on July 13th and working backwards from that friday, thursday, wednesday, tuesday when did we get together to find out what we should do that day . So butler, our First Contact with the Secret Service was a Phone Call asking for assistance with the upcoming butler rally. We then had a police Planning Meeting. It was on july 8th, 2024, in Allegheny County. During that meeting is where they relayed the information specific to their request, and at that point for butler esu, it was two Sniper Teams and a quick Reaction Force. Where did that meeting take place . Allegheny center. I was not there because i was teaching a class, but one of our Deputy Commanders went to that meeting. Mr. Blasko . Again, from that meeting we took direction from Commander Lenz and Deputy Leaders and started to formulate a plan on what to do. The first interaction i personally had with the Secret Service was the July 11th Walk Through at the Farm Show grounds. Actually on the site . Yes, sir. Okay. That was my question, and i know you were in Allegheny County getting ready for this, and who walked the site and determined a lot of things including where the parameter should be, i think it would be supposedly there would be a lot of coordination between the local Law Enforcement and secret Service And Homeland security, and that was to prepare for that event. Thank you all for being here today and your testimony. I will now have mr. Crow ask his questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I served in the army before coming to congress, and one of the principles of the operations, and i am sure you are familiar that you have to have Unity Command and effective communications, and without the Unity Command and effective communications, the unit cannot operate. The Secret Service did not establish a Command Center, and appear atypical in your experience . Would there be one Command Center . Yes, thats very atypical. Normally there would be an overall Command Post for the entire visit and each site would have a Security Room with Radio Traffic pertinent to that area is controlled, and it would be the state and local police and Secret Service. Its unusual The Way it turned out at this site. Do you have a sense in this instance as to why that might occur . Are there instances where you are connected to an event you would do multiple Command Posts or can you see why that well, its a misnomer. The Secret Service always has Security Rooms at individual sites and they may be termed a Command Post but there should be just one Command Post and each site has a Communication Center where information relative to that site would be transmitted. For instance, the Airport Agents or security there really are not concerned with what is appearing at the other sites because they are concerned about the airport so theres a Security Room just for the airport site. It would be safe to say that time and speed is really important, right . The idea behind that i dont mean to put words in your mouth but if Theres Something identified as being wrong, a suspicious person, that quickly has to be communicated, right . Yeah, this is how it should happen. Protective detail is on the frequency, and post standers are on a second frequency, and the tactical teams are on the third frequency, but the other tactical teams monitor all three frequencies at the same time, so if something happens, its the Security Rooms responsibility to get on the radio and say theres an issue, remove the protectee or cover them. They have to be rock solid on protecting the President Or President ial candidate, so that frequency is for their individual movements. Based on what you know and what you heard from the Commander And Mr. Plasko, and there was a suspicious person and it drew the attention of one of the Sniper Teams that took pictures of it. If that information was effectively communicated to the fbi or if the fbi, i guess to rephrase that, Set Up a communications and Command Post to receive that information, would that have been a situation where the protectee would not have been allowed to go onstage you mean the Secret Service and not fbi . Yeah, Secret Service. The Detail Leader and Shift Agent should have been told theres an issue, were working a suspicious person. At that point it probably would be inappropriate to remove the president from the stage but the Detail Leader should know, theres an issue and i may have to react quicker. At a minimum when the suspicious person, the Detail Leader and the Shift Agent should be told theres an issue. In your experience hav