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Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Jan 18

‼️‼️Decision to Cancel Outdoor Inauguration Events -- Weather or Security Related? + other Security Concerns:

Over the last 24 hrs numerous colleagues and friends have asked me what Secret Service sources are saying about the cancellation of outdoor events for President-elect Trump's inauguration. I will give you the unvarnished report of what I'm hearing while being extremely sensitive about trying not to make attendees more jittery than they already are.

Most USSS sources I've discussed this with are sticking to the stiff upper lip, curt response: The cancellations are simply weather-related.

But a few sources I trust have said the extreme weather is good cover to make things much safer because of the heightened security environment. The Secret Service has a zero-fail mission, and there is absolutely no room for errors. The USSS operates in extreme weather environments all the time -- but it's different when you have hundreds of thousands -- if not more -- people converging near a protectee at an outdoor event after two assassination attempts and several long-term known threats.

What the FBI said Monday -- that it was not tracking any credible threats against the inauguration was laughable-- especially after the ISIS-inspired terrorist who slammed into a crowd on NYE in New Orleans. Trust in the FBI has been completely eroded. Even at Jimmy Carter's ceremonial lying in wait at the capitol, there were two lone actors the U.S. police interdicted trying to disrupt the event -- one with a machete and another who tried to blow up his car near the Capitol, the U.S. Capitol Police chief Thomas Manger said Monday.

👉👉The last inauguration that was conducted inside the Capitol was Ronald Reagan's second swearing-in. Reagan was the only other president in the last four decades to have been shot and nearly killed by a would-be assassin. It occurred during his first term.

Is this simply a coincidence? After what I heard from sources, I don't believe it is.

I'm told by a well-positioned source that there have been deep concerns among some federal law enforcement officials about the open spaces surrounding the capitol where the ticket-holding Inauguration attendees were supposed to be sitting -- whether that area and any area around the Capitol is going to be open to the public -- and if so, why are there no magnetometers being positioned to screen people before they are let in.

Secret Service sources tell me there will be NO ONE allowed in those open spaces on the mall next to the Capitol, and they will have numerous post-standers guarding the perimeter with many security sweeps near the Capitol complex. Everyone inside the Capitol, except members of Congress and Supreme Court justices, will be screened through magnetometers.

If anyone tries to climb the fence with apparent or obvious lethal force (either what looks like an explosive vest or a gun drawn) to get into those areas, they will be shot on the spot, Secret Service sources are telling me. This is one likely reason why a dozen police departments are reportedly refusing to help provide security for the inauguration -- they do not like the Secret Service's aggressive rules of engagement.

The USSS, military, homeland security agents, and national guard are not messing around - no funny business or aggressive actions to scale fences or bring them down will be tolerated.

There is a Secret Service press conference at 4 p.m. I will be set with questions -- please let me know what you would like asked.

This Video shows parade fencing in D.C. being deconstructed this morning:

🚨🚨If you can believe this, NO REPORTERS ON THE SECRET SERVICE PRESS CONFERENCE CALL ASKED ABOUT DRONE MITIGATION -- DURING A 45 MIN. CALL. NO ONE.

More information re: Secret Service/police/military treatment of fence-jumpers or anyone attempting to push over the fences protecting open space near the Capitol: the Secret Service and law enforcement will not shoot them as long as they do not appear to have an obvious lethal force (explosive vest, gun, etc.) Instead, they will flood the zone with police/other law enforcement officers and apprehend those fence-jumpers/pushers. This happened at the RNC convention, and the USSS and law enforcement eventually regained control of the fence without any convention attendee getting harmed.

Former Dept of Homeland Security advisor Charles Marino @Charles__Marino tells me: You will see very little change with the overall heightened security footprint. Just because the event has been moved indoors does not mean that the threats suddenly disappear.”

Read 4 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Jan 16

‼️BREAKING: Trump to announce Sean Curran, the head of his Secret Service campaign detail, as Secret Service director, according to three sources who I've spoken over several days this week.

Curran is on the right in this iconic photo from the July 13 Butler assassination attempt.

More to come...

One source specifically told me that Trump plans to name Sean Curran as USSS director tonight or tomorrow and that Curran plans to bring in a retired agent as a deputy -- someone from his ties to the Newark Secret Service Field Office, where Curran first started as an agent.

Sean Curran, who has spent 22-23 years in the Secret Service, was one of the first agents to leap on top of Trump during the assassination attempt.

(Nick Menster, the assistant Special Agent In Charge of the Trump detail, the No. 3 in charge, was the first, I'm told.)

Curran has a very good reputation among most agents and in the broader Secret Service community as a whole, though some have expressed concern that he will need to have a far more forceful presence/personality to truly shake up the agency, clean house, and bring about the reforms so many current and former agents believe the agency so desperately needs.

In naming Curran, Trump would be rejecting the recommendations of two blue ribbon commissions, one in 2015 and last year's bipartisan Independent Review Panel, that the next president should choose someone from outside the agency to bring about the numerous reforms the panel recommended.

Trump, during his first term in office did name the first director from outside the agency, Randolph “Tex” Alles, a former U.S. Marine Corps general and the first Secret Service director selected from outside the agency in its 159-year history.

Trump chose Alles to lead the agency from 2017 to 2019. During that time, Alles built a good rapport among rank-and-file agents, but many believed several agency leaders successfully sabotaged him. Alles was swept out of the agency when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson left her post in April 2019.

Despite Curran's laudable herorism the day of the Butler rally, which likely saved Trump's life, the Congressional investigations and Independent Review Panel heavily criticized the performance of several agents that he managed on the detail for failing to place a sniper or any other security asset on top of the AGR building, where shooter Thomas Crooks opened fire.

Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL who runs the private military security company Blackwater USA and is close to Donald Trump Jr., also criticized Trump's inner ring of Secret Service agents at Butler for allowing him to pop back up, exposing his torso and head to any additional shots. Prince, appearing at an August 26 panel at the Heritage Foundation, provided his critique under questioning from several members of Congress, including GOP Reps. Cory Mills of Florida, Eli Crane of Arizona, Andy Biggs of Florida, Chip Roy of Texas, and ex-Rep. Matt Gatez of Florida.

Read 5 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Nov 5, 2024

🚨🚨🚨 Important 🧵Both the @StateDept and the @FBI spent several weeks in late August and early September refusing to answer my questions on whether there was a member of the Diplomatic Security Service, @StateDeptDSS the agency that protects our dignitaries abroad, including Secretary of State Antony Bilnken, who was being investigated for spying -- wittingly or unwittingly -- for Iran.

Now we know, thanks to John Schindler, in the substack piece below, that my inquiries were spot on -- and the FBI and the State Department were refusing to confirm my reporting. The man in question, as Schindler revealed yesterday, is Lawrence Casselle.

Casselle served as the DSS regional director for the Near East (2023-24), but I'm told is now on an administrative or work-from-home leave pending the FBI investigation.

He served as chief of staff to the current Diplomatic Services director from from 2021 to 2023 and even as Donald Trump's White National Security Council director for counterterrorism from 2019-2020. He is being accused of having a romantic affair with an Iranian spy. I was told in late August by sources in the DSS community that it was likely an Iranian "honey pot" investigation.

But my question is a very relevant one today, Election Day. Why did the Biden-Harris administration work so hard to block my reporting on the DSS Iranian spying incident -- to flat-out refuse to answer my repeated questions about it during the height of the election campaign and right after Kamala Harris received her nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago? For months, the administration had been facing Iranian spying allegations against senior officials, including Robert Malley, Biden's Iran envoy.

My questions were incredibly pressing at the time because we were learning more about the Iranian assassination attempts against former President Trump - and the Diplomatic Security Services works with the Secret Service often when foreign dignitaries are in the U.S. In fact, the two agencies were working quite closely at the time to prepare for the United Nations General Assembly in New York, an annual event in which the city is flooded by thousands of foreign leaders. This year those dignitaries included Iranian Vice President Javad Zarif. You'll remember that Trump complained that the Secret Service made him scale down an outdoor rally in Wisconsin in late Sept. and move it inside because so many Secret Service were being diverted to help with security for the U.N. General Assembly, including for protection for Zariff and his team.

"We were in Wisconsin yesterday, and except for the fact that the administration would not let us have—we had 50,000, maybe more people, and we were going to do an outdoor rally, and we ended up having to do it inside, in front of about a thousand people," Trump said.

"But they didn't want me to be outside. They said they couldn't get us enough people because they were guarding the United Nations and Iran."

At the time of those remarks, Sen. Chuck Grassley was reporting in granular detail about an FBI investigation into an Iranian plot to kill Trump. In fact, on July 12 -- one day before the assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., the FBI arrested Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national who had recently spent time in Iran plotting Trump's assassination in a safe house. I was on several television and radio shows and podcasts speaking about this Iranian plot against Trump during those late summer weeks.

I will post screenshots about my inquiries and responses from the FBI and the State Department in the links below.

Questions to the FBI and non-response from Aug. 26.

My inquiry to the State Dept on Aug. 29.

Read 9 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Sep 5, 2024

🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING NEWS on IRANIAN THREATS against Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Nikki Haley and other politicians and top U.S. officials.

@ChuckGrassley releases new information on the Iran-backed assassination plot against Donald Trump -- and says the Iranian threat against the country is far larger than just targeting Trump.

Unclassified records Grassley has obtained reveal that Iran-backed plotters discussed potentially targeting American "politicians, military people or bureaucrats" including Trump, President Joe Biden, and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley.

Asif Merchant, a Pakistani native with Iranian ties who the Justice Department has charged for his involvement in the scheme, provided the evidence in an FBI proffer agreement.

Grassley has provided the FBI proffer agreement here:

“Bad actors are determined to wreak havoc on our country, and American political leaders across both parties are sitting squarely in the crosshairs. In this extraordinarily heightened threat environment, federal agencies ought to be laser-focused on building up public trust and reassuring the American people of their efforts to carry out their protective missions,” Grassley said in a statement. “I won’t stop pressing for answers until Congress and the American people are afforded the transparency they deserve.”

👉👉Just last week I wrote about this Iranian threat and how some U.S. protective agencies have been penetrated by Iranian assets-- I will provide the URL for that story in a link to this post.

Full Grassley press release below:grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

Here's the story I wrote on 8/26/24:

Is Iranian Spying Hurting Efforts to Protect Trump, Harris, Biden?

realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/…

🚨FBI DOC RELEASED BY @ChuckGrassley REVEALS DETAILS OF IRANIAN PLOT TO ASSASSINATE TRUMP:

This FBI proffer (write-up of an interrogation) with Asif Merchant, the Pakistani man with Iranian ties whom the FBI arrested on July 12th (one day before the Butler rally) includes a detailed plot to target Trump at a rally with Merchant and another individual at a Iranian "safe house" discussing the pros and cons of trying to shoot Trump at an indoor vs. an outdoor rally and detailed descriptions of the security - i.e. the Secret Service protection at each type of event.

Here's the full proffer.
grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

Read 5 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Aug 14, 2024

🚨🚨BREAKING: Secret Service Dir. Rowe is addressing the whole agency right now in a conference call and is pressing for a complete "paradigm" overhaul and is advocating for major budget increases.

Says the idea/mindset that we're going to ask you to do more for less is over. "We can no longer operate with that mindset."

"We can no longer wear our people down."

"We have to win the day every day.... We have to be in state of readiness to be able to meet environment."

"I look at Butler as an opportunity also to examine our own paradigm, to examine our own methodologies, to challenge our assumptions, to look at the new dynamic threat environment in which we're operating in, to look at the demands in which we're placing on our people.

"We're rising to this moment. And so I see this as also not only a challenge, but an opportunity for us to make improvements to learn from this so that it never happens again."

(cont.) Rowe says people are now getting the message that we can't "max-out" our people and not compensate them for it.

Says USSS special agents and employees "who have great love for their country and great love for what they do, candidly, the way we work people it's just not sustainable."

"And people are hearing that now. They are grasping it, and we are making that case now."

He's also outlining new technology and new interoperable and sophisticated communications plans.

I'll outline those in this email.

‼️‼️ Rowe, in powerful, humble and earnest remarks, is now "telling employees to build each other up, not tear each other down."

"Look at your brothers and your sisters and the people who left and right of you. you're in this situation with you right now -- build them up -- be better teammates."

"President Lincoln said a house divided will fail -- We have to have unity and singular focus as an organization right now."

👉👉Just before those comments he asked everyone to do some introspection:

"One thing that want to talk to you about is this: Imagine if you had a family member, maybe your father, your mother or sibling or spouse, and they've dedicated their lives to being a core professional. They...become a special agent or uniformed division officer.

"They've made contributions, but somehow, one day, they show up to work, and somehow their co-workers now viw them differently. They view them as inferior. They view them as not being significant contributors to what we're trying to do."

"If that was somebody special to you, I'm pretty confident you would be upset by that."

"I have been saddened by some of the comments that have been directed at our agency, some by people who actually carried the same commission...that I did, or that you do. But we cannot allow that toxicity to creep into our culture."

Ends his remarks by saying: "God bless you, and thank you for your time."

Read 7 tweets

Susan Crabtree

@susancrabtree

Aug 12, 2024

🚨🚨 EXCLUSIVE: A Secret Service special agent partially responsible for developing the plan to secure the rally where former President Trump was nearly assassinated is under internal agency investigation for POSTING VIDEOS AND PHOTOS FROM HER PROTECTIVE ASSIGNMENTS TO SOCIAL MEDIA, according to several sources within the Secret Service community.

The female agent served as the official site agent for the July 13 event in Butler, Pennsylvania, that ended in an assassination attempt that nearly killed Trump and the murder of rallygoer Corey Comperatore in front of his family. RealClearPolitics is not naming the agent out of concern for her personal safety,

👉👉Dissension, ‘Toxicity’ Plagued Trump’s Secret Service Detail Before Assassination Attempt realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/…

👉👉An RCP analysis of the Butler rally site agent’s Facebook account found a photo that appears to be taken from Mar-a-Lago looking across the intercoastal waterway.

“A sunset to be grateful for …” the post states, including a heart and sunset emojis and the hashtags “#nofilter #southflorida #thankful #workmode …”

Sources familiar with the videos said most appeared on the agent’s Instagram account, which is marked private.

‼️ Rancor, recriminations, and serious formal misconduct complaints have plagued all levels of the Secret Service detail assigned to protect former President Donald Trump over the last year, distracting the team from its core mission of securing Trump from physical harm and preventing an assassination.

Trump’s regular detail team, a force of 60 employees – special agents and support staff – has been beset by internal division, long workdays and weeks, and constant stress.

👉Last year, the team lost one of its members to suicide.

Read 6 tweets

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