Revealed: Police Spotted Trump Shooter 2 Hours Before Attempt—New Texts Expose Lapses.

In a startling revelation, newly released text messages have exposed that police snipers were aware of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, nearly two hours before the attack took place. According to texts published by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Crooks was seen behaving suspiciously at Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, well before the shots were fired.

The texts, sent by officers from the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office, provide a timeline of Crooks’s suspicious activities leading up to the attack. At 4:26 p.m., an officer noted in a group chat that Crooks had been observed near the rally site and had managed to park his vehicle in a location that suggested he was surveilling the event.

Another text, sent at 5:38 p.m., detailed Crooks’s use of a rangefinder to scope out the rally stage. Despite these red flags, it appears that no immediate action was taken to investigate or intervene.

The messages shed light on a critical gap in the security response for the rally, where Crooks’s suspicious behavior was noted but not acted upon in a timely manner. As the countdown to the assassination attempt continued, another officer, Gregory Nicol, recommended notifying Secret Service snipers and dispatching uniformed officers to check on Crooks. Nicol expressed his assumption that someone would address the situation, but no record indicates such action was taken.

This information has surfaced amid ongoing investigations by Congress and the executive branch into the failed assassination attempt, which left Trump with a graze to his right ear. The texts reveal a concerning lapse in the communication and coordination among the various security teams tasked with protecting the former president. The failure to act on early warnings underscores potential vulnerabilities in the security protocol at high-profile events.

As investigations continue, these revelations prompt questions about how well-equipped and responsive security measures were in this critical instance, highlighting the need for improved vigilance in safeguarding public figures.