Sen. Grassley releases bodycam footage from local law enforcement of Trump rally shooting aftermath

By 
 July 27, 2024

In the wake of the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security have been infuriatingly tight-lipped about their evident failure to prevent the shooting that occurred at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Undeterred by the federal lack of transparency, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) obtained and publicly released bodycam footage from local law enforcement that documents the immediate aftermath of the attempt to kill the former president, NBC News reported.

The video shows SWAT officers and a Secret Service agent standing on a roof near the body of the deceased shooter while discussing what was known of the suspect and the response of law enforcement to the incident that left one rally-goer dead and three others wounded by the gunman, including Trump.

Bodycam footage of rally shooting aftermath released

In an X post on Tuesday, Sen. Grassley released a three-minute video clip of bodycam footage obtained via congressional request from Pennsylvania's Beaver County Emergency Services Unit, which had assisted the federal Secret Service and DHS agents deployed to secure the campaign rally site for former President Trump.

The video shows multiple SWAT officers talking with a suit and sunglasses-wearing federal agent about the shooting incident that had just occurred, including how the shooter had been spotted earlier arriving on a bicycle with a backpack and how pictures had been taken of him by local counter snipers and sent to the Secret Service before agents temporarily lost track of him.

"July 13 Bodycam footage provides more info than Secret Service will share [with] America," Grassley wrote. "We NEED detailed answers ASAP on security failures TRANSPARENCY BRINGS ACCOUNTABILITY."

Federal agencies have "failed to be transparent" with the public

In a news release that accompanied the video clip, Sen. Grassley observed that, based on the bodycam footage, local law enforcement not only saw the shooter before he reached his rooftop perch overlooking the rally site but also took pictures of him and sent those photos to Secret Service agents, though law enforcement eventually lost track of him before the shooting occurred.

The video also includes some discussion among the officers about using a drone to check and clear a nearby water tower with a clear line of sight to the outdoor rally location -- a seemingly pertinent fact given documentation shared by the senator which proved the presence of Secret Service-operated drones identified as a "counter unmanned aerial system."

"For the past 10 days, questions have only been building regarding the catastrophic security failure that occurred on July 13," Grassley said in a statement. "Federal agencies, particularly the Secret Service, have failed to be transparent with the American people."

"This assassination attempt is a matter of signifcant public interest, and the public’s business ought to be public," he added. "I’m releasing these records as part of my efforts to get answers and hold agencies accountable."

Questions that DHS and Secret Service need to answer

Sen. Grassley also included in that Tuesday news release a copy of a letter he sent to DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas and new Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, who was elevated to that position to replace the former director, Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned in disgrace following a congressional hearing in which she refused to answer the many legitimate questions of members of Congress.

That letter shared some of the information obtained from local law enforcement sources and demanded answers to a series of questions that particularly addressed the use of surveillance drones at the rally site and the nearby water tower.

In a separate release on Thursday, the Iowa senator released the full video of bodycam footage obtained from local law enforcement -- though that video has been restricted on YouTube -- and took note of other unanswered questions that were raised by the discussions of the SWAT officers and federal agents.

That includes the apparent "fragmented and delayed chain of communication between local and federal law enforcement" as well as a "seemingly delayed response" in identifying and disabling what was determined to be a remote detonator device linked to explosives that were later found in the shooter's vehicle.

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