Intelligence agencies were reportedly preparing for a potential threat of an Iranian assassination plot against President Trump ahead of the shooting last weekend.

The sources, reported by the New York Times, said they learned of the potential Iranian threat weeks ahead of the rally and that there wasn’t believed to be a connection between the shooter at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally on Saturday and the Iranian threat.

The Secret Service had been adding additional security measures due to the potential Iranian plot, and the Trump campaign had been told about it, the Times reports, as Iran has long sought action against Mr. Trump for a 2020 strike that resulted in the death of an Iranian commander and one of the country’s most powerful leaders, Qassim Suleimani. 

A 20-year-old from Bethel Park who worked as a dietary aide at a nursing facility, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to climb a nearby rooftop and shoot Mr. Trump in the ear despite the apparent increased security. A local father, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, was killed by the shooter and two others were critically wounded.

The Secret Service and its director, Kimberly A. Cheatle, have come under fire for the security breach, with furor mounting on Tuesday after Ms. Cheatle said that Secret Service agents weren’t on the rooftop because of its “sloped roof.” 

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said in an interview with ABC News. And so, the decision was made to secure the building from inside.”

The comments immediately were criticized on social media, with one combat veteran and author, Sean Parnell, saying it was “a total BS excuse.” 

“Our snipers used to set in on mountain tops in Afghanistan. On the down slopes if need be,” he wrote on X. “The stupidity of this statement explains so much of why s*** hit the fan that day. Absolute incompetence.” 

In the ABC interview, Ms. Cheatle said that she felt “shock” and “concern” upon learning of the shooting. 

“The buck stops with me,” she said. “It was unacceptable, and it’s something that shouldn’t happen again,” she said, adding that she doesn’t plan on resigning. 
The House Oversight Committee announced that Ms. Cheatle will testify on Monday about the security lapses and as to why a “rooftop within proximity to President Trump was left unsecure.”