GAO, Grassley: Biden Admin Hid Trump Threat Intel

Former President Joe Biden's U.S. Secret Service received a credible threat on President Donald Trump's life 10 days before last July 13's Butler, Pennsylvania rally, but chose to leave the assigned details for Trump and the rally in the dark.

"This past weekend, the Government Accountability Office produced [to] me its report on the July 13 assassination attempt," Grassley told the Senate in a floor speech Monday night.

"The Government Accountability Office's report starts by stating, 'The U.S. Secret Service failed to implement security measures that could've prevented the assassination attempt on then-former President Donald J. Trump during a July 13, 2024, campaign rally.'

"According to the report, prior to the July 13 rally, Secret Service received information from the Intelligence Community about a threat against President Trump's life.

"Yet, this threat information wasn't shared with Secret Service personnel or local law enforcement officials all responsible for securing that event.

"Clearly, had all federal, state and local law enforcement officials known of this threat, it would've changed how they secured the AGR building, where the sniper opened fire from."

Notably, the threat was not specific to the event or the ultimate shooter, according to the GAO.

"Prior to the July 13 rally, senior-level Secret Service officials became aware of a threat to then-former President Trump," the report concluded in the summary of findings. "This information was not specific to the July 13 rally or gunman."

The rest is history, but Grassley and the GAO continue to conduct oversight on the security and intelligence information sharing failures in order to prevent future presidential assassinations, provide transparency to the public to "stop conspiracy theories," and perhaps deliver legislative and procedural reform.

"Siloed" intelligence and top secret high classification and not necessarily Biden administration complicity or conspiracy were to blame, according to the GAO.

"Nonetheless, due to the Secret Service's siloed practice for sharing classified threat information, Secret Service and local law enforcement personnel central to developing site security plans for the rally were unaware of the threat," the report's summary continued.

"According to Secret Service officials, this information was not more broadly shared across the Secret Service because in part, the information was highly classified, and the Intelligence Community did not include information at a lower classification level to share."

Had the assigned security details for the rally and Trump received the "siloed" classified intelligence, the event and the president could have had bolstered its security measures that ultimately failed.

"However, the Secret Service's siloed information sharing practices, such as requesting that only personnel within an individual’s chain of command be briefed on threat information, contributed to members of the advance team not receiving relevant information," the report summary concluded. "Making changes to Secret Service policies to require it to proactively share threat information internally could help ensure its agents and partners will have information needed to provide effective protection."

Not only did the Biden administration fail to protect its official political opponent – just hours before Trump would accept the RNC presidential nomination and just days before Biden would step out of the race officially – but it also covered up its failures in the face of oversight, according to Grassley.

"The Biden administration stonewalled my oversight requests," Grassley said in his Senate floor speech. "I strongly urge the new administration to let all the facts breathe, unlike the last administration.

"The day of the shooting, my oversight unit quickly got to work. They talked to patriotic whistleblowers. They [performed] dozens of witness [interviews], including [with] local law enforcement officials, rally goers and local businesses.

"My staff obtained and reviewed weeks-worth of security footage, text messages, pictures, law enforcement briefing materials, after-action reports and still other records.

"They also obtained police body camera footage that provided the first video of what happened in the aftermath of that shooting. I made it all public.

"At the time, my investigative work unveiled the most detailed picture of the Trump assassination attempt."

One of the most stunning findings from the report includes the outlining of the line-of-sight from the building the shooter fired off eight shots from a high-powered weapon, with a bullet striking Trump in the head (the right ear) and a bullet killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore.

Farm equipment was supposed to keep the shooter from getting a direct shot off at the stage.

"The Government Accountability Office's report also found that Secret Service planned to use farm equipment to address a line-of-sight issue when securing the AGR building," Grassley said on the Senate floor. "Before the rally, a campaign staffer asked Secret Service to modify the plan, which the advance team did as the staffer requested.

"But they didn't notify senior officials overseeing the rally of these changes. If they had, the senior officials might've overruled them."

Grassley vowed to keep "riding herd" on accountability, oversight, and reform.

"The Secret Service operates a zero-fail mission, and they don't have room for any error," his 9-plus minute speech concluded. "Every failure exposed by the Government Accountability Office report must be turned into positive changes in the Secret Service.

"I want my colleagues to know I'll be riding herd on them until I'm satisfied the job is done."