New facts and old fakes

Trump shooting revisited

An incredible amount of information keeps surfacing, and every new bit confirms, refutes, or amends the ideas we’re forming about this assassination attempt. Let’s take a look at some of it.

A nice supporting piece of information came from Dan Bongino.
At 11:00 minutes in, he talks about the shot that killed the assassin. He confirms that the shot that took out the assassin was indeed fired by a Secret Service team, meaning the one on the left side roof, and that it was one of the most difficult shots that any counter-sniper team has taken in a long time. “The shot, from what I heard, there was about a nine inch window they had to shoot in from about 400 yards and there was a tree in the way, and they still got the shot off.” This came from a source he seems to highly trust, from within the USSS community.

The mention of the shot taken through a tree that was in the way would seem to confirm my analysis. However, there is a problem. Was it 400 yards, or 400 feet away? Look at this map, with both distances plotted out. Yellow is the 400 yard distance, and green the 400 feet distance, with the assassin, the target, in the center.

The only buildings with roofs with a line of sight to the shooter would be these four:

All other angles would have the line of sight towards the assassin obstructed. Yet there is NO mention of any additional sniper teams present, and none were spotted by any of the rally-goers. Some even remarked that in a prior event, at the same spot, there were snipers and uniformed agents on all the roofs around the field, I would assume including those 4 buildings, but that on July 13 their absence from all those rooftops was conspicuous!

The story must have made the mistake of mixing up feet and yards, or is false.

Next, in general the idea that this was all fake, and staged.

I just came across this video:

It shows how Trump’s ear was indeed hit, and torn. Except, it is fake. Notice how the text on Trump’s hat is mirrored: that makes the ear we see his LEFT ear, not the RIGHT ear that was hit! I always am weary when I see such a clearly zoomed in fragment, without them also posting the raw video, for context. Careful, not all we want to be true is actually true…

Another point, about the lack of blood on Trump’s shirt, collar and hand. Some see this as proof that this was all fake, staged. There must be blood dripping everywhere! Why isn’t it? See, it must have been a carefully and photogenically applied blood capsule!

A closer look at the photographic evidence available paints a different picture.

Trump got hit with the first shot, which was a very well aimed shot. Using pictures taken from Trump’s right, by press photographers who were stationed there, the following sequence, immediately following each other, right before and when the first shot rang out, shows this (credit source):

Notice how the microphone, the trees, etc. stay in the same spot, relative to the bullseye. But as Trump moved to turn his head to the right, in a quick, sudden move, his upper body leaned in to accommodate that new look upwards, to the right. Now the bullet struck him right in the ear lobe, instead of full on in the side of his head.

That there was a real bullet, can be proven by this video.

Look at the puff of dust created by the impact of the bullet, when the first shot rings out.

Look also at the hydraulic line of the forklift truck that was hit, causing the speakers to collapse down. Real bullets, right in the direction of Trump.

So, why is there no blood on his cuff, collar, and shirt?

Immediately after getting hit, he puts his hand up, and goes down. His position, as pictures show, is on all four: hands and knees. His head is facing down, so any blood runs down his face towards the lowest point, his mouth and chin. This pattern is exactly what we see once he rises up again.

Notice, very importantly, that the Secret Service agents immediately start to administer first aid, by using a small towel (it was 93 degrees outside in Butler that day!)

The towel is placed on his ear, while his shirt was being opened, protecting it from getting blood on it.

This can be seen on these pictures:

By the time he got up, the bleeding had stopped (a smaller wound than we thought, and the heath making the blood coagulate faster), without having been in a position where blood could stream down to his shirt or collar.

That leaves the hand/cuff: Trump put his hand up very quickly, and we don’t know what exactly he touched. The wound was not large, and it is very possible that there wasn’t much blood yet at that time. Either way, he touched his ear with his hand, not with his cuff.

This article by AP debunks 4 claims. The picture that shows Trump without injury to his ear was not from this past week, after the shooting, but from Sep 17, 2022.

The claim that Jonathan Willis, self-identified on 4chan, made that there was an order not to shoot, seems false as well. The USSS claims there is no such agent (which does not prove much, if you believe the USSS is compromised), but it goes against the normal rules of engagement: you don’t want until someone actually shoots at the person who you are supposed to protect, before you take your own shot. My sequence, as laid out in my first article, explains the delay in fire from the Sniper Teams. Still, there are other sources that seem to corroborate that the snipers had to first radio in anything suspicious to a ground team that then would investigate. This is not really debunked, until we can see internal Secret Service memos and directives (or audio from their radio communication) for that day.

A third claim, about the bullet damage on Trump’s chest and his bullet-proof vest was also refuted, as I already did as well. Lastly, a claim was made that Secret Service agents surrounding Trump were all smiling, ‘in on the joke’. That photo was photo-shopped.

Other information comes from Mike McCormick and Dr. Naomi Wolf.

McCormick notes how late Jill Biden’s trip to Pittsburgh, to visit a dinner organized by the Pittsbugh Italian Sons and Daughters of America:
“But on the other hand, the Jill Biden trip, to me, looks rushed—like a last minute add-on. The big question is: When did Jill Biden’s advance team advise the Secret Service of her trip to Pittsburgh? Was that before or AFTER Trump announced his rally in Butler?” Any requests for clarification were ignored, so far, by the Secret Service spokespeople.

Dr. Naomi Wolf goes a whole lot further, and asks, hypothetically, of course, if Dr. Jill Biden doesn’t need to be questioned... From her own extensive inside experience with how the White House works, and how pivotal the Secret Service is when planning outside events, she has a unique vantage point to see some serious irregularities.

At her request, her husband, who spent a career in military intelligence, in intelligence, and then in private security, including in “close protection,” looked over a series of videos of the event, and identified ‘at least 10 major security practice anomalies’: “These ranged from a missing third counter-sniper team — meaning that a “fan” of a given area is left unprotected — to the fact, noted by many, that several of the Secret Service agents were too short to cover President Trump, thus leaving his head and neck fully exposed after shots were fired, to the fact that neither building from which the alleged assailant, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired his shot or shots, nor the parking lot in front of it, was secured, to the fact that one of the Secret Service agents fumbled so obviously with her weapon, not succeeding in replacing it in its holster, that this revealed, in Brian’s view, a lack of familiarity with the weapon, as well as inadequate training.”

Added to that is the ridiculous claim by USSS director Cheatle that the roof of the glass company building was sloped, and thus unsafe. Which makes you wonder how compromised Cheatle is, to make such clearly ridiculous claims.

Wolf continues: “I wish to stress that NOTHING AT THAT LEVEL [White House and USSS] HAPPENS SPONTANEOUSLY OR CASUALLY.”

“The point is, both “surrogates” for Pres. Biden were speaking at closed, secure venues with limited entry points. Did FLOTUS’ event, and Harris’, require dozens of top Secret Service operatives, leaving Pres Trump exposed? Did these two events require all of the tall Secret Service operatives, or all of the Secret Service operatives that were actually well-trained in use of their weapons?”

Wolf then asks some pointed questions: what happened with the teams surrounding Jill Biden and Kamala Harris, when the news of a shooter got out? Did they deviate from their planned route, to ensure the safety of their own protectees? What communication was there? Were they warned and brought to higher alert? As she points out, this would be standard practice, as in those first minutes, it would not be clear if this was just a single attack, or an organized attack with multiple shooters and attacks on high value targets.

She comes out with a bombshell realization: “I see the First Lady as Suspect Number One — hypothetically speaking of course, lawyers — in my concern about who it was who may have put President Trump in danger.” Wolf points at the civil war within the White House, and how it is specifically Jill and Hunter Biden who are stonewalling any idea of Joe’s exit. With a historical reference to First Lady Edit Wilson, Wolf wrote: “When President Biden is on camera, you see that it is First Lady Dr Jill Biden who directs his glance, his words, his movement; in those thousand Presidential decisions a day, is she also directing his pen? If not she, then who?

It is not a trivial question.

Whoever is actually running America, it is clear that Mrs Biden does not wish to leave the Oval Office or the White House.”

The cui bono is very clear:

“She and her husband, certainly her son, are all at risk of investigation, or worse, under a new Trump administration. She, more than anyone who is fully sentient in her family, needs President Trump to go away.

So in my calculus, President Trump’s rival is not the impaired President Biden.

It is the First Lady.”

So many questions...

She brings up a series of serious problems:

“But someone made the decision to surround President Trump with tiny female Secret Service agents [...] Someone made sure to arrange to be short of a third counter-sniper team; someone made sure to fail to secure a building 130 meters away from the speaker. Someone is directing SS director Cheatle to give nonsensical answers (this is itself a message, about impunity).”

“I think all of this is meant, if not to murder, certainly to seek to intimidate Pres. Trump into abandoning the campaign trail.

I think FLOTUS and her staff need to answer questions. I think that they need to yield records about the staff’s comms, if any, with Director Cheatle.”

She ends with this following picture: in an event full of incredible and iconic pictures, not the one that makes the headlines. Still, incredible:

Add to this the following news, that a team of 10 motor cycle agents from the PA State Police were at the Trump rally to assist with his motorcade, but apparently did not have permission. Some got reassigned ‘for the good of the Bureau’. The agents say they got permission from their supervisors, but the Bureau itself says they were not supposed to be there (but at Jill Biden’s event). They got hurt by shrapnel, and immediately helped some of the other injured.

Notice also how this video confirms the location of the 3^rd seriously wounded spectator, and adds information that many more were hurt, albeit not seriously.

Even worse, is the news that FoxNews broke, that a shooting threat was identified 10 minutes before Trump came to the stage. How on earth was he allowed to proceed? This is not an oversight, it goes against all protocol and all common sense. Where are the recordings of all radio comms and text messages? Who was in charge? Who decided to move forward with Trump’s speech, despite that threat?

Next, people are doubling down on the idea that there were multiple shooters, including from the water tower.

John Cullen went on Brave TV, earlier today, and made several claims that don’t stand up to scrutiny.

He places Trump as facing towards the screen, to the point that Crooks would have shot him in the LEFT side of the head.

Let’s look back at the shooting. This video was taken straight ahead of the podium: Crooks is almost perfectly to the left of Trump. His claims makes no sense, whatsoever.

Trump’s head is aimed PARALLEL to the podium, meaning he is looking straight at the shooter, with his head slightly tilted. Trump did NOT turn all the way to the right, he was still facing the crowd, both hands on the lectern with only his upper body only slightly turned, to accommodate his head looking up and to the right. Remember this picture?

Taken from the right of Trump, it shows he was NOT completely turned to the right, and the bullet of Crooks would have grazed the ear, missing a perfect headshot he had in his sights just a fraction of a second earlier. Trump is NOT at a 90 degree angle with his audience to his left... Cullen makes the mistake to look at the blue body icon, and imagine Trump in the same position, facing fully towards the screen. Trump, with his decades of experience with TV, movies, and public speaking, knows this golden rule: always face your audience. He knows how to point at something to his back, while preserving that orientation towards his audience, to maintain that connection.

Let’s look at the map, again.

Trump, at the podium, is turning his head parallel to the lectern. THAT is our immediate point of reference, not the walkway, to determine the position of his head. At that point, with his head parallel to the lectern, the shot is fired, and grazes his ear. The only possible direction, is straight ahead of where he was looking: the roof, NOT the water tower.

Moreover, his own graph indicates that the jumbo-tron is between the podium and the water tower. Look at the below picture: from where the podium was, the water tower was obstructed by the jumbo-tron. There was no clear line of sight, nor of fire.

Next, he is forced to impose a 3^rd shooter, to make some of his initial observations (that I already refuted) work. He claims that several people on the back row got hit with a heavy round. (The lady did not get hit in her purse, but her scarf moves up.)
First problem: where did this shot come from? It has a rather flat trajectory, so it could not have cleared the much higher roof of the barns behind the lower side bleacher. And what is behind the barns, with a high enough elevation, to allow such a shot?

Second: why make your first shot not aimed at Trump? (There is no need to take out the sniper team first: make your kill shot, the rest is irrelevant; also, what about the second sniper team, if it was really so important to take out the sniper teams? Who both were looking towards the roof, not to the water tower nor to the right of it?) What about the people in front of the first guy in white who goes down?

Already on his own thread, another person refuted the claim about the man with the white shirt and shorts. He does get up again, and seems fine, waiting on the bleachers until Trump gets moved past them, about 2 minutes later. Mr. Cullen never replied to this. He claimed, in one of his dismissive remarks, that video showed that man carried out. Look at the video of the Motor Cycle Cops: it shows a man wounded, with a flag shirt, walking down, and a cop and another person carrying down the man with the black pants and white shirt, not this person, key in Cullen’s whole theory.)

Third: he claims there are 2 shots, nearly simultaneous, a millisecond apart. Lots of problems with that: there seems to be no sound signature for that, and the skill required to pull that off, is insane. Especially when considering that Crooks got hurried by that cop that peeked over the edge of the roof, with Crooks aiming his rifle at that cop and chasing him away. The shots were fired right after. He talks about ‘walkie-talkies’ communication to synchronize: where is the evidence that Crooks had any communication device? Could still turn up, so this point is plausible.

Next, Cullen claims that Corey Comperatore, the fire chief, was on the same line of fire, for the same shot. This, too, is provable false.

Let’s look where Corey was hit:

Compare where Trump was standing:

and

In short: the bullet that struck Corey was NOT the bullet that struck Trump. Now realize that the difference in trajectory, when extrapolated to the roof, is tens of feet difference of position.

The timeline itself refutes it, as Corey had thrown himself on top of his wife and daughter: how can he do that, if that was the first shot, and he had no idea what was coming?

Add to this the witness of the motor cycle cops, who were right at that area, and reported getting hit by shrapnel of some sort, and were lightly injured. Where did that shrapnel come from? There are still unanswered questions, but this theory about a 2^nd shooter, and a shooter in the water tower, who got killed, absolutely does not hold up to scrutiny.

So 3 shooters, who must have shot at the very same time. The angle from the water tower was likely obstructed by the jumbotron, and is not the right angle to have skimmed Trump’s head. The other shot past the left bleacher could not have cleared the roof with the snipers, and then make such a flat trajectory of ‘hits’.

As further proof for his water tower theory, he poster this picture, with the text “Shooter has been located on top of the water tower..!!”

Uhm, no.

Look at the top of the water tower:

In the ‘after’ pictures, that protruding bit on top of the bulb is gone. And that is supposedly proof that the small speck in the ‘before’ pictures is actually a shooter! This is amateur hour, to disregard such a prominent feature of the tower, and claim any difference (that could be caused by resolution of the camera or a bunch of other optical reasons) ‘must be the shooter’, because he needs or desperately wants a shooter to be there, to keep his theory afloat.

There are other new elements that could be brought up, but I will keep those for a later update.