The US Secret Service knew gunman Thomas Crooks was armed and in position for two whole minutes before he attempted to kill Donald Trump.
The shocking revelation has been revealed in a new report released on Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.
The Secret Service missed several opportunities to prevent the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt of the now-President during his 2024 re-election campaign.
The report detailed how local law enforcement was first notified of a "suspicious person" on the roof at 6.09pm - two minutes before eight shots were fired at the President, at 6.11pm.
The Secret Service had a lack of "policy and processes coupled with limited intelligence sharing and poor collaboration and communication with protectee staff" resulted in a failure to notice the assassination attempt, the OGI report said.
Tim Miller, a former Secret Service agent. gave a blunt assessment of the security operation to GB News.
"The Secret Service has a no-fail mission," he said. "Well, they failed in Butler, and I don't say that with any joy. On foundational issues; basic issues like line of sight, owning rooftops, intelligence coordination, tactical coordination."
The security agency also failed to detect Crooks's drone which he used to view the campaign event stage.
This, the report said, was the fault of an operator who had just 20 minutes of training, and a broken ethernet cable fixed just 30 minutes after the gunman finished scouting the site.
The report was based on 92 interviews, more than 70,000 documents and a 3D model which recreated the site of the shooting.
Mr Trump's campaign also refused to let agents park vans which would have blocked the shooter's line of sight because they'd be too close to the President's shot.
Also noted was the lack of coordinated communications with local law enforcement.
The Secret Service did not receive 102 radio transmissions from local law enforcement officers which were given in a separate communications room.
The President's security force received just five phone calls and three text messages about Crooks in the same time period and missed messages which said Crooks had a gun.
The report concludes: "The limited communication regarding the suspicious person... did not create a sense of urgency for Secret Service members to report this information to President Trump’s protective detail."
The OGI gave seven recommendations to the Secret Service, including further training and standards for counter-drone operations and to introduce policies to cooperate with local law enforcement presence.
Mr Trump has faced numerous assassination attempts, but the Butler attack was the closest to a fatal attempt, with Crooks' bullet grazing the President's ear.
Mr Miller said despite the number of "mad men" targeting the President, he was more "concerned about state-sponsored actors, about folks that are really organized".
The former Secret Service agent said an attack on the White House could be "devastating".
Mr Trump was the target of a suspected terror attack at UFC Freedom 250, held on the White House lawn.
Last week, two more men were arrested in connection to a planned attack, bringing the number of men arrested for the alleged plot up to seven.
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