Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson: Secret Service Dir. Testifies on #Trump Assassination Attempt

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Larry Johnson: Secret Service Dir. Testifies on #Trump Assassination AttemptSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom, coming to you live from Lake Como, Italy, with a very, very special interview with our dear friend and colleague, Larry Johnson, who will describe to you in detail the tests he performed on using similar firearms to the one that was used in the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. Wow. But first this. You all know that I am a paid spokesperson for Lear Capital, but I'm also a customer, a very satisfied customer. About a year ago, I bought gold and it's now increased in value 23%. So $100 invested in gold a year ago is now worth $123. If you have $100 in the bank, it still shows $100, but $100 in the bank is now worth 24% less. Inflation has reduced all of your savings,

all of your buying power and mine by 24%. And gold is largely immune from that. If you want to learn how gold will soon hit $3,200 an ounce, call Lear Capital. 800-511-4620 or go to learjudgenap.com. Get your free gold report. Same experts who predicted the 23% rise that I've enjoyed have predicted this $3,200 an ounce gold. Learn about how to transfer this to an IRA. Protect your savings. 800-511-4620, Learjudgenap.com. Tell them the judge sent you. Larry Johnson, welcome to the show, my dear friend.

Thanks, Judge. Pleasure to chat with you, of course, no matter what we're discussing. You posted a fascinating piece on your site, Sonar 21. Would you tell us the tests that you performed in an effort to ascertain what level of sophistication this shooter would have, would have to have had in order to come within a hair's breadth of assassinating the former president. So the news reported that this kid, Crooks, took the shot from about 140 yards, maybe 150 yards, using what's called an AR-15, also an M4, M16, same variety. Those shoot the same size bullet, but they come with two different power packages. One's the most powerful, they call it the NATO round 5.56, the less powerful 223. Anyway, I said, okay, let's see how tough it is to take that shot. And what happened was this kid got off five shots in about three to four seconds. Is that a lot?

Yeah, he didn't have a long, leisurely time. All the shots that were recorded took place in six seconds, except there was one like a second after, and that spawned all sorts of conspiracy theories, but we can talk about that later. Anyway, so I went out with a buddy of mine. I am a certified rifle instructor. I don't claim to be some great marksman. I'm not, you know, bench rush shooting, which is long distance shooting. That's not my thing. Some people, that's all they do. But I can shoot accurately and I know how to adjust the rifle. So we started at 70 yards, just half the distance. And we had a timer. And at the first series, I said, okay, give me three seconds on the timer. And you go beep, and then I start

shooting, and then it beeps after three seconds. Stop shooting. So I did that. The first time I did that, when we went down to look at the target, I didn't hit a thing. All my shots were high. Well, that meant that even though I had zeroed my optic, and zeroing the optic means when you look through that piece of glass and you see a red dot or a green dot, wherever you put that red or green dot, that's where your bullet's supposed to go. So I'm putting my green dot, red dot in the middle of a bullseye, but it's hitting up at like the one o'clock position. Then I know that I've got to adjust that scope so that their dot comes down and moves to the left. So that's what I did. I adjusted my

scope and it was then zeroed. So I was sure I was on. Then we ran the test. One time I was able to get four shots on the head at 70 yards in five seconds. It's not an easy shot. So I was reacting to these news reports that, oh, this kid was just an amateur. He didn't have any training. He was a terrible shot. Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. He had some fundamental basic training, but beyond that,

there are things he did in the days or weeks, and I don't know exactly when he would have done it, but this is what the investigation needs to uncover, that he didn't just grab his dad's rifle out of the closet or gun safe and then run out and shoot Donald Trump. He had taken that rifle to a range and zeroed it because you want to make sure that when you're looking through that optic, that the bullet's going where you want it to go, number one. Number two, even with all the distractions, he's laying on a hot, hot roof. And people don't understand that in the metal roof like that, it appeared to be metal, in the sun, temperatures can get up over 140, 150 degrees, easy. So, you know, that's another issue. And then he's got the cops coming up, you know, looking at him over the edge,

and he's flashing a gun at him. And then somehow he gets his gun back and is able, all you got to do is make that first shot. And it was simply by the grace of God that as Donald Trump turned his head, that bullet missed. All right, Larry, you are considerably older than this person you've had considerably more time to fire area we're going to focus in on learn how to do it with expertise could a 20 year old without an instructor possibly have shot with his expertise?

Not unless he'd had prior training. Just some 20-year-old who plays Call of Duty, some video game, and he grabs a rifle and goes out and starts shooting. No, he couldn't do it. It requires a good understanding of how the rifle operates and how the optics operate. You can't just assume. So the idea that this was a lone wolf, this kid was acting just all on his own, is nonsense.

He had assistance. Now, I'm not claiming that there were other shooters there that day. I know there's a lot of that out there circulating on the internet. The biggest problem I have with this, they say, oh, there are other shooters. Okay, where are the victims? Because the four people who were shot, Donald Trump, Corey Campatore, and the two other gentlemen, when you look at where they were standing, they were all standing in a, let's call it, if you had a cone that went out, they're all standing in that cone of fire.

And it shows that the shots came from the same location to wound them. Now, if you had people shot up to the far left and off to the far right, you know, then, okay, yeah, there probably was a second shooter. But that's not what the shooting evidence shows. And they said, oh, well, we heard multiple shots. Well, duh. The police were firing. The Secret Service were firing. And until they sort out, you know, who shot what and, you know, how many shots were fired, we're not going to know that exact answer.

But as, you know, like the illustration that's shown on the screen right now, you know, the bullets travel. They only stop once they go so far that they run out of energy or they run into something. Is there any evidence that there was another shooter there? I've seen that. There's audio tapes. They show different shots. And so from that, they conclude. People say, oh, they saw somebody up in the water tower.

And again, there are Secret Service counter sniper fellows out on the Internet now. You know, they even dismiss the water tower. But again, if there were multiple shooters, then there would be multiple casualties. You only got four. And we know that crooks fired at least four shots, maybe five. How much training would it have taken for him to have gotten off those five shots in that period of time and hit Trump's ear at that distance? Probably, you know, two days, eight hours a day, six hours a day you know to get you know somewhat proficient at that um you know it's just it ultimately all boils down to how you press the

trigger and tell me again about the weapon that he used did he have a scope on it or yeah we had one of those was it one of those weapons where you have the steel ring and the iron cross in the middle of the steel ring? No, no. It didn't have the iron sights. It had what's called an EOTech. It's a red dot. So it looks like a little miniature. In fact, I should have brought one on.

I could have illustrated that. It's about the size of my three fingers together, but it's a circle. And it's like looking through a binocular, except this one was not magnified. So it doesn't increase the size of the image down range. And it's got a dot. It's like a laser.

The dot shows up in the middle. And all you got to, the nice thing about these red dots, particular for people with handguns, all you got to do is put the red dot on once you intend to shoot and press the trigger and you'll hit it. So the reason Trump is alive is because Trump turned his head. It's not because of a lack of equipment or training or sophistication on the part of Crooks. Correct. I mean, listen, Crooks was, he was operating above his grade level, you know, really his skill level that day.

So I just, I want to disabuse everybody, the notion that somehow he was, he was some sort of incompetent, inept. No. And he was, he didn't get this way on his own. He was helped. Now, who helped him? Was that person knowledgeable and witting of what Crooks intended to do? Or was it someone that, you know, Crooks went to an instructor, said, hey, you know, I'm working on my, I'm a good hunter. I want to work on my distance shooting. And somebody, you know, a local instructor worked with him.

But I guarantee you, somebody worked with him, and they worked on getting his rifle zeroed. But then set that aside, just his operational awareness at the site, how to scope out and find the right spot to shoot from, you know, that really indicates he had been there before. This wasn't his first time. Did he have a drone? No.

That he was using? Well, yeah, he apparently had used a drone there before. Yes. So, you know, he was targeting the place. He was collecting information. But again, that entire process of collecting information suggests he was getting guidance on how to do operational planning for an attack. Did the Secret Service have drones at the site of the Trump rally? No. The failures of the Secret Service on this, it's not just incompetence. I started off saying it was either incompetence or

something darker. It's something darker. was either incompetence or something darker. It's something darker. What do you mean by something darker, Larry? It was an organized plot by people beyond crooks to kill Donald Trump. Real simple. People in the government? Yes. That's my belief.

All right. What's my belief. All right. On what is that belief based? You don't get this series of failures by accident. This is not just incompetence. Failure to conduct in advance. Well, how do you make sure you get a failure to conduct in advance? You put a person in charge of it that's never done it, which appears to have been the case. My understanding is that the secrets, the agent in charge of the Pittsburgh office who was put in charge of this, he was a cyber crime guy. He had never done advance work on sites and didn't even understand perimeter security. That's the guy you put in charge?

The complete lack of the breakdown of communications, the failure to secure all potential sniper locations, the failure to respond to reports that there was something unusual and a potential threat out there, and to keep Trump, not to keep Trump in a safe area, but to put him out on stage? Yeah, so this stinks.

And listen, I've talked to, I think you saw the video with my buddy Larry Cunningham. Larry was, he ran Ronald Reagan's detail after Reagan had been shot in the following year. And again, he started off saying, oh, boy, this looks bad. It's, you know, could be a mistake. Now, last time we chatted, he says this stinks. There's some there's something else going on here.

And I think it's critical to find out who was helping crooks, what contacts the crooks have, which, you know, but there are a lot of people who stood to benefit from this. And I know there have been, you know, some have gone even farther than I'm willing to today to suggest specific names of people involved, not just on the Democrat side. Within the Republican establishment side, a lot of people want to

see Donald Trump dead because they recognize Trump poses a genuine existential threat to the cozy incest that colors Washington. Wow. Larry, I took your Sonar 21 podcast and sent it to my shooting instructor in New Jersey, who is a retired New Jersey state police and who taught half the troopers in New Jersey how to shoot. His hat is off to you. He said, your buddy Larry Johnson knows exactly, exactly what he's talking about. And then he says to me, invite Larry over for dinner. We'll make some pasta for him. I can't wait to meet him because I have a shooting range on my property. But it's the highest accolade from a guy who doesn't share.

I know this because I'm his student. He doesn't share praise easily. The highest accolade from him. Larry, thank you very much for this. Thanks for all you're doing and for the courage to come on here and say what you're saying. As there's more news, as there's more evidence, as you have more conclusions, please reach out to me. And no matter where I am on the planet, we'll have this conversation. Man, did I pick two wrong weeks to go on vacation. You deserve some vacation time, but I think people want you back just to calm the world down. Thank you, Larry.

God bless you. All the best. Thanks, Judge. Bye-bye. Okay. Coming up at the bottom of the hour in two minutes, live from Beijing, Pepe Escobar, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.