ideological or extrem- ist screeds on social media. “He planned ev-
erything on his own,” Higgins tells News- max. “I’m confident of that because I investi- gated it. “But what I don’t
that any security deci- sion was influenced by politics. But after Butler, he
said, that confidence has vanished. “Clearly it appears
BONGINO
know,” the congress- man adds, “is how he became ‘that guy’ — that level of insan- ity, committed to the death to kill President Trump. I don’t know how that happened.” Until 2024, the Secret Service
had never encountered a sce- nario where a former president was running for office again, and candidates typically get a lower level of security than a sit- ting president. That hasn’t stopped critics
from suggesting Biden appoin- tees intentionally withheld addi- tional protective resources from Trump, just as they had from in- dependent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier in the cycle. Perhaps the most strident in-
dictment of the Secret Service’s performance that day came from 12-year Secret Service vet- eran and conservative talker Dan Bongino, who also served as an instructor at the Secret Service training academy in Beltsville, Maryland. Although Bongino currently
serves as the deputy director of the FBI, before taking on that role he spoke in August at a Heri- tage Foundation panel focused on the root causes of J13. He shared profound concerns about the Secret Service’s leadership and culture. Bongino told the Heritage
audience that throughout his Secret Service career, which spanned the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, he never “even remotely” had reason to suspect
that for the first time in American history,” said Bongino, “we have a Secret Service
that is making decisions that may not be all political but may have a political tinge to them.” Bongino said Secret Service leadership told advance plan- ners not to make requests for ad- ditional support, such as a larger counterassault team or more agency personnel. He said do- ing so would have made Trump “look more presidential.” “I think they were concerned
about optics,” Bongino said. “They were making some of these decisions based purely on grade-school level politics.”
‘HOLD UP, HOLD UP!’ One shocker to emerge from the numerous probes into how the Secret Service performed that day: The Secret Service protec- tive detail that accompanied Trump onto the stage was never informed that a suspect with a range finder was loose in the crowd — let alone lurking about on a nearby roof. Had Trump’s detail been
made aware of the imminent threat, they say, they could have simply delayed his appearance on stage until they were sure the venue was secure. This fact led a dumbfounded
Rep. Mike Kelly, chairman of the bipartisan Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, to remark in a December interview with CBS News, “Why didn’t you just say, ‘Hold up! Just hold up, don’t let him out [on stage].’ If that hap- pens, Corey Comperatore is
still alive today.” The inexplicable failure to
cover the AGR roof, and to alert Trump’s protective detail of the lurking threat, are key data points that further support the view that the security failures at Butler that day were breathtak- ing, both in scope and signifi- cance. Kessler, who has a host of con-
tacts in the Secret Service and the FBI, calls what happened in Butler a “total, total fiasco.” Kelly has blamed “a lack of
professionalism . . . a lack of con- cern . . . a lack of coordination and the ability to communicate.” McCormick, meanwhile, who
was about to be called up on stage to join Trump just before the gunfire broke out, described the Secret Service bid to protect their charge as “a complete and utter failure.” Small wonder, then, that
Trump credits his survival to “the hand of God.” Considering all the snafus, how else to ex- plain it? Afterward, anyone delving
into the unsolved mysteries of J13 would encounter the FBI’s strong reluctance to share its in- formation — even with members of Congress. While Kessler points out
that confidentiality is essential to any criminal investigation, Higgins, Kelly, and Rep. Jason Crow, the ranking Democrat on the House task force, have all complained that the FBI is over- looking the constitutional over- sight role of Congress. The FBI, for example, only
gave Congress access to 81 of the more than 1,000 witness statements it collected on the at- tempted assassination. Higgins, moreover, believes
his probe has uncovered a major FBI error; namely, its conclusion that a Secret Service sniper fired the shot that stopped Crooks’
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