A secret police system may become a menace to free government and free institutions because it carries with it the possibility of abuses of power, which are not always quickly comprehended or understood. Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone, 1924
We want no Gestapo or Secret Police; the FBI is tending in that direction. President Harry Truman, 1945
Liberty has not only enemies that it conquers but also perfidious friends who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy and socialism. Lord Acton
Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force. Lord Acton
The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree. James Madison
The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Selwyn Duke
House Republicans held a forum on the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump on August 26th. They were not chosen to be on the House task force, but they wanted to get to the truth about why there were so many failures. Representatives Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Cory Mills (R-FL), and Chip Roy (R-TX) hosted a forum on the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
Dan Bongino, a former United States Secret Service special agent; Erik Prince, a former United States Navy SEAL officer; and Ben Shaffer, a Washington regional SWAT operator, were the witnesses who discussed the timeline of events in Butler, Pennsylvania, communications and rules of engagement between law enforcement, and whether negligence by the Secret Service displayed incompetence or potentially nefarious intent.
The forum was two hours long, and every minute was illuminating. You can listen to the full program on C-Span or Rumble. I know most folks don’t have the time, so I’ll include some of the most relevant information that has not been in mainstream media.
Obama’s weaponization of federal intelligence was on full display in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) came close to ending in DIE for former President Donald J. Trump.
Whistleblowers have told Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) that Department of Homeland Security agents with minimal protective training and experience were assigned to protect former President Donald Trump during an assassination attempt. Hawley added that an SS whistleblower revealed that HQ discouraged agents from requesting additional staff for Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The MSM Silence is Deafening
If you search the web for updates on the Trump assassination attempt, the majority of articles are from July. One article from September 4th states that the House Trump Assassination Task Force was interviewing local law enforcement. House Speaker Mike Johnson chose seven Republicans and six Democrats.
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), the task force chairman, and ranking member Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), sent several letters on September 3rdrequesting records on planning, operations, and communications and seeking interviews by September 30th from Butler County and Beaver County agencies that were supporting the U.S. Secret Service and Pennsylvania State Police at the rally. Kelly votes with the Constitution 46% of the time, and Democrat Crow never votes with the Constitution.
Former police officer, Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) blasted the FBI for releasing attempted Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ body to his family for cremation days after the shooting — calling it “disturbing” that the agency would impede further investigation.
“On July 23rd, Crooks was gone. Nobody knew this until Monday, August 5th, including the County Coroner, law enforcement, Sheriff, etc.” Higgins described the FBI’s actions “as an obstruction to any following investigative effort.” The Congressman claimed that while the body was under the Butler County Coroner’s authority, the coroner would “have never released Crooks’ body to the family for cremation or burial without specific permission from the FBI.”
Along with revealing the “disturbing fact” of Crooks’ body, Higgins blasted the FBI for its handling of the crime scene, stating the law enforcement agency released the area after three days.
The New York Post reported that the parents of Thomas Crooks have retained high-powered attorneys as the feds probe what they knew and when. According to Daily Mail, The Crooks family is represented by Quinn Logue — a top Pittsburgh law firm. According to their website, veteran lawyers John Quinn and Matthew Logue specialize in personal injury, legal malpractice, and employment litigation cases. The firm also does criminal defense — though its partners seem to focus more on civil litigation, based on their biographies.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who is on a bipartisan Senate investigation into the attempt on Trump’s life, vented his frustration at the progress of the investigation so far.
“All I can tell you is the Secret Service and FBI are dragging their feet. They’re stonewalling us,” Johnson said on Fox News.
The FBI is a political weapon of a larger institution that is now focused almost entirely on supporting a radical communist agenda to destroy civil society in the United States.
House Republicans Conduct Independent Inquiry
Meanwhile, a handful of House Republicans with military and security backgrounds who were not tapped for the bipartisan group are conducting an independent inquiry featuring frequent broadsides of the Secret Service and FBI.
However, the one thing not discussed was the figure on the water tower which was thought to zipline down the tower and drive away. Veterans at the rally saw the figure and even stated that it was a perfect place for a second shooter. However, once Crooks was dead, there was no reason for a second shooter to out himself.
Video here:
Before the actual C-Span forum, the Dan Bongino Show invited Andy Biggs, Eli Crane, Cory Mills, and Chip Roy to a roundtable discussion. Bongino opened with, “The acting SS Director now, who was the deputy director previously, was one of the guys in the decision chain that said, ‘We’re not going to employ counter sniper assets to a Trump rally if it’s not within driving distance of DC. And you’ve got to think to yourself, what the hell are we paying for?”
Congressman Biggs stated, “Look, we’re talking about a $3.3 billion budget. If you are going to restrict the protection services that are designed to protect, then somebody needs to be fired.” Biggs went on to say that the House is in charge of funds, and they need to either stop the funding or reorganize the entire Secret Service.
Congressman Roy exposed the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices of former SS Director Cheatle, which actually destroyed the agency’s ability to function in the manner in which it was established. DEI has been implemented throughout the federal government, and it’s killing us.”
Rep. Cory Mills said, “Given the untimeliness at which this is being conducted, you will see at this stage where I think that criminal gross negligence and purposeful intent will be indistinguishable. When we look at all of this, the failure to communicate properly draws me away from just negligence and pulls me into that purposeful intent arena that I don’t necessarily need to get into.”
He continued and said, “Eli Crane and I went out there. We’re not, yes, men. We’re not people who will say yes to go along and get along, so we’re not picked for these committees. Every single one of us here will tell you that we can’t trust the FBI when they admit to 287,000 violations of FISA where they were spying on American people, all of which we did not vote to authorize or reauthorize. What’s even worse though is when I sat there in the briefings. We had the Intelligence Community (IC) sitting there, and we were talking about this FISA reauthorization, which I was against to begin with, just like the Patriot Act, which I think is a complete spy on the American people, but they were like, ‘we have a 98% reform.’”
“I looked at them and said, ‘Let me get this straight, you’re telling me that I have to go to the American people and tell them I’m only spying on 4,000 people illegally now this year?’ My whole point is that we can’t trust government to investigate government, which is why we set up this individual task force and is why we’re bringing independent people who have expertise such as yourself (Bongino), and Eric and others so that we can get to the facts and make it transparent. Also, we should not hide behind some low-level classification where we’re not being transparent to the American people. That’s one of the things that’s my biggest stickler. They’ll use the lowest level classifications and try and put it in a back room. The American taxpayers pay for our salaries, pay for that office, and pay for that information. We need to be transparent and gain accountability, and that’s what this is for.”
Bongino comments that the SS didn’t have a counter-surveillance team, so nothing was done when Crooks showed up with a range finder. He said that if they were at that site, there was zero chance they wouldn’t have seen Crooks.
Congressman Mills stated that local law enforcement had offered a drone, but the SS refused it. “After all these weeks, we are now at a point where criminal gross negligence and purposeful intent are indistinguishable.”
The bottom line is that the American people no longer trust these institutions.
Crooks, who left several explosive devices in his car, had searched for information about bomb components as early as 2019. The day after the forum, Bongino exposed the level of sophisticated bombs and remote detonators that Crooks built and that work. They could not have been put together only by the young shooter.
Congressman Michael Waltz, a Green Beret who dealt with explosives, told Bongino that the level of sophistication with the explosive device is way beyond the capacity of this kid. He must have had some help. Bongino said, “Somebody was incentivizing this guy to do this. Was it a foreign actor through a proxy? I don’t know, but the oddities in this case are adding up.” He said the SS didn’t even pick up the local radios that were left with them. Had they picked up the radios, they would have heard, for over an hour, that the local police were tracking Crooks.
Bongino commented, “Layered incompetence is intent.”
Rep. Eli Crane, U.S. Navy SEAL, said, “Can you imagine if this had been a ten-man Hezbollah team and not this 20-year-old kid who got within 130 yards of President Trump with an AR-15? He had multiple explosive devices with a remote detonator on them and flew a drone. What if this was a real threat, and what message does this send to the rest of the world? What message does it send to the ayatollahs in Iran? What message does it send to North Korea, Vladimir Putin, and others who would love to make sure President Trump doesn’t get back into office? To me, it sends a message, ‘open season’ because this SS is not up to the job.”
Cory Mills adds that the cartels at the border are incentivized to protect their revenue, which means not allowing Trump back into office.
At the C-Span forum, Cory Mills spoke about the SS “layers of incompetence.”
“We have to ask, why was the venue selected not having adequate security? Why were the higher vantage points not covered? Why was there no comparable or compatible communications system established? Where was the security plan, the coms plan, and the data range cards? Where was the actual overwatch? Where were the ground teams in terms of their rates of instruction? What tactical techniques and procedures would be utilized without identifying and mitigating all existing threats? Why was there not an early morning briefing with all to ensure communications and last-minute security plans? Why was a surveillance drone not utilized even though it was offered? And who, ultimately, is responsible or accountable for one of the truly most life-changing incidents for a lot of us, where we almost lost the former president of the United States?”
Rep. Mills goes on to list previous failures:
“August 14, 2024, was a reported failure that an SS agent abandoned her post without permission to breastfeed a child before Donald Trump was scheduled to arrive in North Carolina.
“August 12, 2024, it was reported that an SS special agent who was the official site agent for the July 13, Butler, PA rally was under investigation for posing videos and photos from protective assignments to social media.
“July 27, 2024, an SS agent covered the security camera of a local salon in Pittsburgh, Massachusetts, before an event featuring Kamala Harris. The salon was closed but opened up without approval, and restrooms were utilized for an hour and a half while the building’s security alarm went off.
“July 2, 2023, it was reported that former SS Director Cheatle, the senior agency leader, sought to destroy the cocaine found in the White House in July 2024. The evidence was not destroyed due to pushback from individuals in the SS forensics service division.
“May 20, 2024, a man entered the U.S. SS Miami field office through a propped open door and was not removed from the building until the following morning.
“April 24, 2024, a special agent assigned to Harris’ detail had a mental breakdown where the agent reportedly had physically attacked a commanding agent in charge at the base after verbal disputes with other agents.
“Sometime between 2023 and 2024, at least two people breached President Obama’s Hawaii residence. Though the president wasn’t there, his two daughters were on the premises then.
“April 2023, a drunken intruder entered the home of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in the middle of the night. The man gained access to Sullivan’s home despite 24/7 SS protective services due to the sensitive nature of Sullivan’s position.
“This is not a new problem, as Mr. Bongino has stated, and with a 3 billion dollar budget, we should start evaluating those mistakes to take corrective actions. Would you agree that there should be a much better security for protectives than we see today?”
Bongino agreed and stated, “The SS has a culture problem, Congressman.” He went on to tell how many agents who could not meet even basic protective functioning skills and criminal investigative skills but met other criteria completely irrelevant to job performance were pushed through and told they were to graduate. Bongino was an SS Agent from 1999 to 2011.
Conclusion
Listening to both these forums is of the utmost importance for Americans to be knowledgeable as to how President Obama and his minions, Valerie Jarrett, John Brennan, James Clapper, and Eric Holder, succeeded in “fundamentally transforming” America. Not only was the intelligence community weaponized against Americans, but the entire federal government and much of the judiciary have been changed. An authoritative, authoritarian, and despotic power is now in charge.
I lived through the 1960s and saw the murders of four men, President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. All were allegedly carried out by “lone gunman.” Evidence on all four murders has shown the lone gunman was not the assassin.
The CIA has been blamed for both JFK’s and RFK’s murders by RFK, Jr. How many more are there?
The question always remains, “Who ordered the hit?”
