Leaked text messages between Secret Service snipers present at former President Donald Trump’s shooting show that agents were aware of strange behavior by the young gunman and lost track of him for a period of time before he opened fire.

Messages and a chronology of the rally posted by the Gateway Pundit show that snipers were monitoring 20-year-old Thomas Crooks on the roof of an adjacent building up to a half-hour before he targeted President Trump with a rifle of his own. The line of sight was confirmed by rally participant Greg Smith who along with others could see the snipers with eyes on Crooks while they perched on the second floor of another building. Smith confirmed to the outlet that snipers appeared to be watching the gunman for up to a half hour before he fired his first shot, nicking Trump’s ear.

(VOTE: Are You Supporting TRUMP Or KAMALA In November?)

The morning of July 13th began at 9 a.m. for security personnel as they received a briefing about the late-afternoon Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Local SWAT and sniper units from Butler County, Beaver County, and Washington County received a 48-page presentation outlining the expectations. Participants previously noted that the Secret Service was conspicuously absent from the meeting, according to a 13-page post-event analysis compiled by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).

Snipers took their positions about 90 minutes later, and it wasn’t until after 5 p.m. that Crooks was first observed by a sniper. An analysis of video and satellite evidence from that day has shown that Crooks was walking the perimeter of the rally site hours in advance and even flew a drone for additional nefarious intel that was not intercepted by authorities. At 5:32 p.m. a sniper spotted Crooks crawling along the ground with a rangefinder, a device commonly used by hunters and target shooters to determine their distance before firing a shot. He sent a text to a counterpart who told him to alert the event’s dispatch center. It took approximately 35 to 40 minutes before the sniper traveled to the ground floor to meet up with dispatchers who had been sent to track down Crooks. Minutes later, he opened fire.

As part of the multiple investigations opened into the colossal security failure, investigators have unearthed text messages between the snipers showing that Crooks was on their radar as early as 4:26 p.m. when one sniper described a “suspicious individual” sitting at a picnic table 50 yards from the rally’s exit point. “Guys I am out. Be safe,” the sniper wrote. “Someone followed our lead and snuck in and parked by our cars just so you know. I’m just letting you know because you see me go out with my rifle and put it in my car so he knows you guys are up there.”

One minute later the sniper wrote Crooks was “sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.” Another sniper responded with a thumbs-up emoji and wrote “Roger that.”

By 5:38 p.m., roughly a half-hour before the first gunshot, a sniper again texted his colleague that Crooks was crawling around the building he was in with a rangefinder in his hand. He snapped the widespread photo of Crooks looking over his shoulder and texted it, writing, “Kid learning around building we are in,” one wrote. “I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him.”

From the New York Times:

Taken together, the text messages provide the most detailed picture yet of the hours before the assassination attempt. They reveal that the gunman, later identified as Thomas Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., aroused police suspicion more than 90 minutes before the shooting, rather than about 60 minutes, as has been previously discussed in congressional hearings.

The messages also add to the evidence that the would-be assassin was often one step ahead of security forces, and in particular the Secret Service.

Mr. Crooks scoped out the rally site a day before the Secret Service did. He used a drone to survey the site while the Secret Service did not seek permission to use one for the rally. He researched how far Lee Harvey Oswald was from John F. Kennedy when he fatally shot the president in 1963 — the answer is about 265 feet — and managed to climb onto a roof that was about 400 feet from Mr. Trump at its closest point. The Secret Service left that roof unmanned.

The messages provide new fodder for Republican lawmakers who have excoriated FBI Director Christopher Wray and celebrated the resignation of former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. The House Oversight Committee last week held high-profile hearings where Wray confirmed that Crooks used a drone to obtain his line of sight to President Trump.

“We have recovered a drone that the shooter appears to have used,” said Wray. “It’s being exploited and analyzed by the FBI lab. The drone was recovered in his vehicle, so at the time of his shooting the drone was in his vehicle with the controller.” Asked by Jordan what time the drone was last flown, Wray made a shocking announcement that indicated another security lapse by the Secret Service. “It appears that around 3:50 p.m., 4 o’clock in that window on the day of the shooting that the shooter was flying the drone around the area… Not over the stage and that part of the area itself, but I would say about 200 yards, give or take, away. We think, but we do not know,” he added, “that he was live streaming the view, the footage for around 11 minutes.”

(FREE RED HAT: “Impeached. Arrested. Convicted. Shot. Still Standing”)