A suspicious person was reported an hour before assassination attempt, senator says

WASHINGTON — Three former Trump administration officials who say they were warned that Iran had targeted them wrote a letter to the Justice Department 18 months ago asking for help protecting them but never received a response, according to the officials.

“It is clear there are specific, credible threats against us and our families by Iran and those inspired to act on Iran’s behalf,” the officials wrote in the letter, a copy of which they provided to NBC News. “This necessitates urgent steps to improve our physical and cyber security.”

The officials are former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and two top officials who focused on the Middle East at the National Security Council, Victoria Coates and Robert Greenway.

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The Secret Service said today it stood by its female agents and was appalled by some of the criticism they’ve received on conservative social media since the attempted assassination. 

The Secret Service said in a statement to NBC News that the criticism from pundits and influencers was baseless. The agency also stood by its commitment to diversity in recruiting as helping, not hurting, the effectiveness of its protective teams. 

The statement follows a multiday campaign of derision by some conservatives who accused Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, of being unqualified and who said female agents assigned to Trump hadn’t been physically capable of protecting him. Some critics said the Secret Service should return to being all male, which it hasn’t been since 1970. 

Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s chief of communication, said in the statement: “We stand united against any attempt to discredit our personnel and their invaluable contributions to our mission and are appalled by the disparaging and disgusting comments against any of our personnel.” 

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A gun club nestled in heavy woods on the outskirts of Pittsburgh was thrust into the national spotlight after one of its members tried to assassinate Trump.

Clairton Sportsmen’s Club denounced the “senseless act of violence” in a statement Sunday, acknowledging that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was a member.

The extent of Crooks’ participation at the club is so far unknown. In interviews this week, its president, an ex-employee and a former member defended its reputation as a safe environment with a family-friendly culture that emphasizes the importance of firearms safety.

Bill Sellitto, the club’s president, said in a phone call yesterday that violence is “not in our culture.” 

“What happened Saturday was a horrifically terrible thing. We’re just sick about it,” he said. “I mean, that’s not us. I don’t know what else to say about that. It’s impacting the club. There’s a bunch of us that have slept about a few hours in the last three days.”

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A police officer saw the shooter moments before he fired at Trump but was "defenseless" and unable to stop him, officials said today.

Upon Trump's arrival ahead of the rally at the Butler Farm Show, a call went out about a "suspicious male" near a building of a glass research company, prompting officers to conduct a search, Butler Township Manager Tom Knights said in a statement, adding that its police were tasked with traffic control ahead of the motorcade's arrival.

A search around the building yielded no results, and there was no ladder in sight, but a Butler Township police officer, with the help of another officer, began pulling himself up to the roof, Knights said.

"The officer was pulling himself up to the roof when he made visual contact with an individual who pointed a rifle at him," Knights said. "The officer was in a defenseless position and there was no way he could engage the actor while holding onto the roof edge."

The officer let go and fell to the ground, and police immediately communicated where the person was and that he was armed, Knights said. Moments later, the person started firing, Knights added.

He said Butler Township will not comment further until the investigation report is publicized.

In an earlier interview with NBC News, Knights pushed back against accusations that the officers failed to keep Trump safe.

“Our officers acted instinctively, did their job, followed the training that they had,” Knights said.

Investigators have yet to determine a motive for the attempted assassination, a senior law enforcement official said today.

Despite dozens of interviews and reviews of electronics, federal investigators say they have not identified what spurred the shooter to fire at Trump, the official said.

Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the attempted assassination today, calling it a "horrible and cowardly act."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., posted on social media today that the Secret Service should get new leadership in the wake of security failures at the Trump rally.

A growing number of politicians are calling on Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign.

Eric Trump, the former president's son, called for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign on “Meet the Press NOW.”

A senior U.S. law enforcement official confirmed that Crooks requested Saturday off from his job at a nursing home but told his employer he would be in Sunday.

The shooter worked at the Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as a dietary aide.

Crooks used encrypted communications, FBI Director Christopher Wray told senators today. But so do practically all Americans with smartphones.

While encryption was once the purview of governments, militaries and those with technological expertise, the most popular chat apps on Americans' smartphones are encrypted by default.

Apple’s default text messenger, iMessage, automatically encrypts texts with fellow Apple users. Google’s equivalent, Messages, does the same with fellow Android users. WhatsApp and Signal are encrypted by default, and Facebook Messenger and Telegram offer encryption.

Regardless of whether they were encrypted, the FBI is able to view messages on Crooks’ smartphone if they aren’t set to auto-delete. Authorities said Monday that the bureau had gained access to his phone.

The 20-year-old who shot at Trump on Saturday visited the site of the former president's rally days ahead of the event to scope out the area, two sources familiar with today's Senate briefing told NBC News.

Crooks was photographed as a suspicious person 62 minutes before he opened fire, and snipers spotted him 20 minutes before the shooting, the sources said.

The FBI has interviewed over 200 people, reviewed over 14,000 images and reviewed Crooks' cellphone but has not yet identified a motive. Some of those images depicted a livestream of Trump's rally in Butler, where the shooting occurred.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told senators there is no known connection to foreign entities at this time.

Crooks was reported as a suspicious person an hour before he began shooting at Trump, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in a statement to NBC News following a Senate briefing on the matter.

Barrasso described the briefing as a "cover-your-ass" meeting and insisted that the head of the Secret Service "needs to go." No one has yet been held accountable for the security failures that led to Crooks being able to open fire, he said.

"He was identified as being suspicious one hour before the shooting," Barrasso said. "He had a range finder and a backpack. The Secret Service lost sight of him. No one has taken responsibility."

The conditions of the two victims who were shot and injured while attending Trump's rally have improved four days later, according to Allegheny General Hospital.

James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57, were upgraded from critical to serious condition this afternoon, the hospital said in a statement.

No additional details on their injuries were provided.

The transmitter found alongside Crooks' body after the shooting has been identified as a remote control for a firework detonator, according to a senior U.S. law enforcement official briefed on the matter.

Authorities found two suspected improvised explosive devices in Crooks' car, which the FBI described as "rudimentary devices." The transmitter is typically used for commercial firework companies but is available for sale to the general public. Pennsylvania allows the sale of fireworks to adults.

Photos of the transmitter were exclusively obtained by NBC affiliate WPXI. It looks like a small gray-colored remote control.

The head of the Secret Service has been ordered to appear at a House Oversight Committee hearing next week as part of an investigation into the attempt to assassinate Trump.

Cheatle's voluntary appearance at the July 22 hearing recently came into question, which necessitated the subpoena, according to the subpoena from Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. The document, obtained by NBC News, said the Secret Service originally committed to her voluntary attendance but officials from the Department of Homeland Security "appear to have intervened."

"The lack of transparency and failure to cooperate with the Committee on this pressing matter by both DHS and the Secret Service further calls into question your ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the attached subpoena compelling your appearance before the Oversight Committee," Comer wrote.

Local law enforcement saw Crooks with a range finder before Trump took the stage Saturday, a source familiar with the investigation into the attempted assassination told NBC News.

According to the source, local law enforcement reported to Secret Service that they were looking for a suspicious person with a range finder. It does not appear local law enforcement saw Crooks with a weapon before the event, only a range finder.

The device would have enabled Crooks to measure the distance of his shot. 

With the information that local law enforcement were looking for a suspicious person in the crowd with a range finder, Secret Service still allowed Trump to take the stage.

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s statements about presidential security have come up short.

“No, I think they’ve been horrible,” Turner told MSNBC host Katy Tur, adding, “Clearly, there needs to be changes to the Secret Service.”

He demanded an “immediate independent review of the security platform and footprint” for Trump and President Joe Biden and said he supports House Speaker Mike Johnson’s call for Cheatle to resign, but it’s “not enough.”

The departments of Justice and Homeland Security are hosting a call to brief all House members this afternoon on Saturday’s assassination attempt.

The briefers will include FBI Director Christopher Wray, Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, according to two sources familiar with the planning for the call and a copy of the invitation.

The briefing, at 3:30 p.m., comes after several House Republicans expressed frustration over what they said was a delay by the Secret Service and DHS to discuss the incident with them.

Wray will also brief senators alongside Cheatle, Rowe and Abbate. As of now, Cheatle is not listed on the House briefer list, according to an invitation obtained by NBC News. The Senate briefing will be at 3 p.m. and the House briefing at 3:30 p.m.

There has been much confusion over the role of local law enforcement versus the Secret Service at Trump’s rally Saturday.

Although Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said in an ABC News interview earlier this week that local police were inside the building whose roof the gunman used, a Secret Service official tells NBC News that the local SWAT team was not actually in the building, but rather was in another building in the same complex.

The official could not say which building the local SWAT team used, only that it was connected to the building the shooter used. 

Days after the attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last weekend, Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., are circulating a new bipartisan letter calling for “peace and civility in our nation’s politics.”

“We have the ability to lead by example and show people we can disagree without dehumanizing each other,” they wrote in a letter obtained first by NBC News. “Considering the current political division in our nation, we understand that this may be easier said than done. There is a system of hatred and grifting that has infused itself into our politics. We see it on TV and social media daily, making this task challenging. We must find ways to find commonality with each other.”

Moskowitz and Luna are asking fellow House members to sign the letter. Both have gained reputations for vocalizing hyper-partisan rhetoric in recent media appearances. Luna recently led the charge to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress.

The security decisions taken by the Secret Service before and during Trump's rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday will come under intense scrutiny in a new investigation announced by the Department of Homeland Security.

The department's inspector general will "Evaluate the United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event," a short statement on its website said today.

Trump's ear was clipped by a bullet when 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks opened fire on the event, which was attended by thousands of the former president's supporters. One person was killed and two others were injured.

President Joe Biden has ordered an independent review of security at the rally.

In the weeks leading up to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday, there was already increased Secret Service security around the former president after U.S. officials obtained intelligence that there may be an Iranian plot against him.

The National Security Council emphasized there was no connection between the alleged threat and the Saturday shooting. NBC’s Stephanie Gosk reports for TODAY.

Video verified by NBC News shows the moment Secret Service and state police officers were stopped from reaching the building from where shooter Thomas Crooks had just shot former President Donald Trump by a metal fence.

The video, posted to X, shows officers stood waiting while a police vehicle rammed the fence to make an opening. The SUV only managed to create a hole big enough for officers to then crawl through.