‘There Are A Lot Of Unanswered Questions Here Today’: Goldman Slams Former Secret Service Director

5 months ago

On Tuesday, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) questioned Pennsylvania law enforcement officials on the investigation into the shooting a the Trump rally in Butler County, PA.

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Transcript

00:00recognize Mr. Goldman now for five minutes. Or we'll just pick up the questioning here. That

00:03sounds great, prosecutor. First, I do want to mention how sad it is to see Sheila Jackson-Lee's

00:15empty seat there. What an incredible inspiration to so many of us and a great

00:20member and advocate community presence and we really are sorry to miss her.

00:28She would be very eager to be asking questions here today because there are a lot of

00:36unanswered questions and I sat through a four and a half hour hearing yesterday with the director

00:41of the Secret Service and we got no information. So I'm going to jump on piggyback off of Mr.

00:49Garbarino. Where you left off is that you relayed or PSP relayed the photograph to the number

01:05that the Secret Service directed your officer to, is that right? Yes, sir. Now,

01:13did anything come back? Any instructions, directions come back from the Secret Service?

01:20So again, that is left to the after action. We're trying to come up with a sequence of events that

01:25led to crooks on top of the building where he ultimately took the shots.

01:30Right, but you said, I'm trying to find, I don't need this specific timeline. I'm trying to just

01:35figure out the sequence because you said that many of your officers or Butler ESU officers

01:41were looking for crooks. That was after that photograph was relayed to the Secret Service?

01:51My understanding was after the photo was relayed to the ART trooper in the command post and yes,

01:58crooks was in that area around the building. My understanding is two additional municipal

02:03officers who were on a different post responded to that area and they began actively looking for

02:11crooks. They circumvented or they circumscribed the building to try and locate him. It became

02:18apparent at some point that he was up on the roof. Those two municipal officers who responded then

02:25to their credit actively once they realized that he was on the roof, one boosted the other one up

02:31hanging from the ledge of the roof. By the time that officer was boosted up on top of the roof,

02:37crooks was on it almost in that final position that you saw. He had the AR out and he pointed

02:45it at the municipal officer who suspended from the roof, was not in a position, feet dangling at that

02:51point to draw a weapon or continue hoisting himself back up on the roof. He drops back down from the

02:58roof and at this point, I believe that's when the video that's been widely circulated with people

03:05filming crooks up on the roof saying there's somebody up on the roof. There were other

03:12law enforcement around the building running, but their vantage point on the ground did not

03:17lend a clear line of sight to where crooks was at the top of that building. One of our troopers on

03:24roving patrol also was notified that word went out and he responded about the time that the

03:31municipal officer was boosting the other officer up onto the roof. What was he notified of? I don't

03:38know specifically, that's going to be part of the after action, but we obviously knew that he was,

03:42crooks was suspicious. He had not gone into the venue and they were actively doing everything

03:48they could to try and locate him. So the local officers who were outside of the perimeter in

03:54charge of securing the outside perimeter area, one way or another understood or got direction

04:02that they needed to try to find crooks, presumably to ask him questions, interview him? Is that

04:09what the protocol is? I don't want to speak for the, I haven't seen the secret service

04:14operations plan, what their responsibilities were and what their understanding of those were

04:18from the secret service. I don't want to comment on it. But somehow they got the message.

04:22Somehow there was information that he was suspicious by the time that that

04:26municipal officer was hoisted up onto the roof and saw him, he had the weapon out. Do you know

04:32how long it was before, between the time that the photograph was relayed to the secret service

04:40and the time when the officer was trying to hoist himself onto the roof? So that's a critical

04:48detail, Stanley, a question. I would answer it from the reverse time period from if the first

04:56shots rang out at 18, 11 hours, the hoisting up of the officer occurred probably no more. Again,

05:05I'm going to give you a time, but I want to just put it in the context of a sequence of events. I

05:10would say at most two and a half to three minutes before that first shot. And when they were

05:16notified in the interim, it still remains under investigation. And when he fell off of the,

05:22he let go? The municipal officer, when the briefing that I had was the municipal officer

05:28saw Crooks, Crooks saw him and Crooks turned and leveled the gun at him in a position,

05:33tactically of extreme disadvantage, suspended, you know, in the air with your legs dangling

05:38after somebody had boosted you up. And he let go, right? He let go and he fell back down. And

05:43was there at that point, any communications that there's a shooter on the roof from the municipal

05:50officers who were there? That's all part of the after action. We're just trying to get a sequence

05:54of events up to the point when Crooks then fired the weapon. So that's been the focus of our

05:59investigation. But there was at least, you said, you thought two and a half to three minutes between

06:05the time when the officer, the municipal officers tried to hoist on top of the roof, Crooks pointed

06:13the gun at them, they dropped. And then between that time and when he fired the shots. I don't

06:21want to give you an exact period of time, but it was, it was minutes. It was a very short period

06:25of time, even for his ability, not seconds. I would say minutes, but I can't, I would be remiss

06:31if I gave you, and I want to be very clear on the record. I, you know, when you do an investigation

06:35like this, the timeline is, is critical. You're asking me, I was briefed. I'm answering to the

06:41best of my ability right now. And I know my time is up. Colonel Paris, I want to thank you for,

06:46you know, providing us with this information. It was incredibly disappointing that the director

06:51of the secret service did not provide any of this information yesterday. I think it is good that,

06:57that, you know, we, we're going to have somebody new at the top, but just having somebody new does

07:03not answer the questions. And so, Mr. Chairman, I know you are working diligently to try to get

07:08witnesses here. This is not an academic exercise. This is not something that the American people can

07:14wait 60 days for. With these gaps in information, there are conspiracy theories, there is

07:22disinformation, and all of our safety is at risk. Political violence is escalated, and we need to

07:29know these answers. I thank you for bringing these witnesses here. Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate

07:34the tag team between two sides to get to the to the

‘There Are A Lot Of Unanswered Questions Here Today’: Goldman Slams Former Secret Service Director

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