Trump assassination attempt: Grassley demands Secret Service answer explosive claims in bodycam footage

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is calling on the Secret Service to explain a Butler police officer's claims that the agency met local law enforcement days before the attempted assassination attempt on former President Trump. The officer says in newly released bodycam footage that he had told the Secret Service to secure the building where shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks got off his shots.

Grassley is also demanding that the agency address assertions Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe made at a recent Senate hearing about the line-of-sight local counter-snipers had on the day. Local police are disputing the line-of-sight evidence Rowe claims they had that day. 

The lawmaker made the demands in a letter he wrote to Rowe on Friday as part of his ongoing investigation into the assassination attempt of Trump and the killing of local firefighter Corey Comperatore at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.

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"Were you aware of this body camera footage before your July 30 congressional testimony? If not, why not?" Grassley writes.

In the letter, Grassley calls on Rowe to "describe in detail the ‘Tuesday meeting’ that occurred with [the] Secret Service? If so, did you review it in advance of your testimony?"

"In addition, list all local, state, and federal personnel present at that meeting, provide all records and precisely answer whether the statement from the Butler Township officer is an accurate representation of events," the letter states. 

In the bodycam footage, the local officer can be heard saying to a colleague: "I f---ing told them they need to post the f---ing guys over here … the Secret Service," the officer says. "I told them that f---ing Tuesday. I told them to f---ing post guys over here." 

Grassley writes that as of Aug. 9, Beaver County ESU claim that the Secret Service had not met with them to discuss the events of July 13.

"This type of meeting should be standard, even more so before you are sworn in and provide testimony to Congress," the letter reads. "Unfortunately, this further points to the communications issues that are in part to blame for that day, that seemingly continue to plague the Secret Service."

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In Rowe’s July 30 testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, he provided an image of the purported line of sight from where local counter-snipers were positioned. The image contains a yellow marker depicting where Crooks was positioned and indicates that the counter-snipers had a clear view of him.

However, Grassley writes that as part of his investigation, local law enforcement disputes the angle of the picture, stating to him that "the picture you provided neither accurately depicts their line of sight and coverage area from their position in the building nor their physical placement within the building."

Grassley, in the letter, provides an image of what local law enforcement claim is "their true physical location" with two second floor windows circled. Other images show the local snipers line of sight and the rooftop where Crooks was stationed is not visible. 

Grassley goes on in the letter to list a number of demands from Rowe, including calling on him to provide a site diagram where all local and federal law enforcement counter snipers were positioned as well as their assigned coverage areas, along with the shooter’s positions throughout the day.

He asks if such photographs and diagrams conflict with Secret Service records regarding how local snipers were supposed to be positioned and how the AGR building was supposed to be covered.

Grassley also wants Rowe to explain and provide records of what meetings took place before the rally and if the agency walked through the AGR building in advance of the event. He is also seeking to know if any federal law enforcement personnel at the event saw a person on the roof prior to Crooks opening fire. 

Grassley has also written to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with ties to the Iranian government, who is alleged to have sought to carry assassinate former President Trump, a case that was investigated weeks before the July 13 rally. 

Merchant was arrested on July 12 while preparing to leave the U.S., authorities said, after Merchant allegedly tried to hire undercover FBI agents as assassins. 

Grassley is asking Mayorkas for Merchant’s immigration records, including of he was granted significant public benefit parole before or after being placed on the terrorist watchlist.