There was a series of communication gaps between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners leading up to a gunman opening fire on former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally this summer, local and state police officials testified Thursday on Capitol Hill.

The bipartisan House task force investigating the assassination attempt held its first hearing, which focused on the Secret Service’s reliance on state and local law enforcement.

On July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, a 20-year-old gunman perched on a nearby warehouse rooftop wounded Trump in his right ear. One rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, was killed, and two others were wounded. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was fatally shot by a Secret Service countersniper.

Officials with the the Butler County Emergency Services Unit and the Pennsylvania State Police painted a damning picture in their testimony of a Secret Service that did not provide clear guidance to their agencies, leading to the Agr International complex where Crooks positioned himself not being secured.

Radio communications were not shared across agencies, and local police and the Secret Service had separate command posts, walling off warnings, the officials testified. 

Adams Township police Sgt. Edward Lenz, the commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, said local police did not have access to the Secret Service’s radio communications and that the Secret Service never picked up radios that he offered to the agency even after a reminder.

“I do not believe they could hear us at all,” Lenz said. “They did not have a radio from us, and we did not have a radio from them. So, in the local command post, there was no way for us to hear any of the Secret Service radio traffic.”

Former Secret Service agent Patrick Sullivan testified it was unusual there not a unified command post for the event.

“That's very atypical. I am very surprised,” said Sullivan, who worked on presidential details protecting Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.  

The officials also said the Secret Service never made them aware of intelligence about an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump. They were also not given instructions on how to respond if there was a threat, one official said.

The testimony largely aligned with other recent findings from investigations conducted by the Secret Service and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Secret Service’s director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned in July under pressure from Congress following the shooting.

“It was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country's most elite groups of security professionals,” said Rep. Mike Kelly, the task force’s chairman. “There were security failures on multiple fronts.”

Kelly, a Republican from Butler, said, “This tragedy remains incredibly personal to me.” He and his family were in attendance at the rally.

Police saw the gunman on the rooftop but failed to act before he began firing at Trump. Earlier, state police had reported a suspicious person in the crowd.

“If we knew there was a suspicious person out there … why in the world would you let former President Trump go out onto that platform if you weren't sure it was secure?” Kelly asked in his opening statement. “That's the whole purpose of why the Secret Service was there.”

Lawmakers, who largely blamed the Secret Service and commended local and state police for their actions, asked the officials why the Agr building — less than 150 yards from where Trump spoke — was not included in the security perimeter and how someone was able to climb on the roof undetected.

Local and state police officials said Secret Service never asked them to secure the complex or position snipers on the roof. 

Butler Township police Patrolman Drew Blasko, assistant leader of the Butler County Emergency Service Unit’s sniper team, said during the planning process he shared his concerns with Secret Service agents about the Agr complex. He said he expected the agency to include the complex within its security perimeter or to position agents around the building, but neither occurred.

“There were seven different ways the Secret Service could have secured that building,” said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas. “A 10-year-old looking at that satellite image could have seen the greatest threat posed to the president that day outside the security perimeter was the Agr building and that roof. And a 20-year-old with a week’s notice figured it out and outsmarted and outmaneuvered the entire U.S. Secret Service.”

Fallon, R-Texas, also criticized the Secret Service for allowing people who had not been screened to mill around outside a chain link fence at the rally. 

“It's outside the security perimeter, but there were hundreds of people 50 yards closer to the president than the shooter,” he said. “We didn't know who they were.”

Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, the top Democrat on the panel, said it’s clear the Secret Service failed on July 13 but also that apparent the agency “is stretched too thin.”

Pennsylvania State police Lt. John Herold testified that he also worked during Trump’s 2020 debate in Butler and that “when you compare this to the 2020 rally, the Secret Service did not have a lot of the resources that was in Butler for 2020.”

Trump, of course, was the sitting president in 2020, affording him a higher level of protection. After the July assassination attempt, President Joe Biden authorized Trump to receive the same standard of security as a sitting president. 

Despite that, a man armed with an AK-47-style rifle and intent on killing Trump got within a few hundred yards of the former president as he played golf earlier this month, authorities said. The House task force is also investigating that incident.

The Trump campaign announced Wednesday the Republican presidential nominee will return to the same site in Butler for a campaign rally Oct. 5.