Secret Service Member Searched the Internet for the Location of the Rooftop of Donald Trump's Would-Be Assassin, New Report Claims

A Secret Service counter-drone operator futilely searched the internet for the location of the rooftop where would-be President Donald Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks had been spotted just as shots rang out.

This revelation comes from a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report released on Thursday, July 2.

The report details severe systemic communication breakdowns during the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on then-candidate Trump in Butler, Penn.

A counter-drone technician was actively trying to look up the shooter's coordinates online because internal agency channels failed to relay the gunman's position.

Trump’s immediate protective detail was never notified that an armed man had climbed onto the roof of the American Glass Research International (AGR) complex, which sat only 155 yards away from the campaign stage.

According to the 64-page report, the Secret Service communications room supervisor and the agency’s counter drone operator “did not ask for the AGR complex’s location …. did not immediately identify it as a risk” and the supervisor did not even “recall learning that the suspicious person was on the roof” because he had “delegated communications about the suspicious person to the counter drone operator because it was a ‘busy time’ on Secret Service radios and the counter drone operator was sitting near him and offered to help.”

“Instead of asking local law enforcement personnel for the AGR complex’s location, the counter drone operator searched online for it, and was still searching when Crooks fired his first shots,” the report revealed.

The inspector general concluded that the Secret Service "missed multiple opportunities to detect, prevent, and disrupt" the gunman.

“Ultimately, although members of the local law enforcement communications room were increasingly concerned by the presence of a suspicious individual as early as 5:42 p.m.,” the report continued, “Secret Service communications room personnel did not identify Crooks as an urgent threat before he fired shots.”

“Moreover, Secret Service decision-makers responsible for protecting President Trump while on stage at the Butler event were not made aware of Crooks’ presence at any time,” the report noted.

“As a result, Secret Service members did not alert President Trump’s protective detail about concerns of a suspicious person,” the findings concluded.

The catastrophic operational failure at the Butler Farm Show grounds remains a subject of intense federal scrutiny.

Local police had previously flagged the building's roof line as an obvious vulnerability.

However, the critical warnings never bypassed the fragmented communications barrier between local law enforcement and federal teams in time to stop the gunfire.

Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper immediately after opening fire, and Trump's grazed ear healed miraculously quickly.