Speaking during an interview on Fox & Friends, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Deputy Director Dan Bongino explained how the FBI is using every tool it has to figure out if a threat was posed to the president by a hunting stand found overlooking President Donald Trump’s Air Force One exit area at the Palm Beach International Airport.
According to the Deputy Director, during his comments on Monday, October 20, the hunting stand was found during a security sweep carried out by the Secret Service, and, as it presented a clear line of sight to the president’s exit and is made to provide a stable shooting platform for hunting, was deemed a major concern.
Describing as much, the Deputy Director, who described how the FBI is using all “forensic tools” at its disposal to investigate what was going on with the hunting stand, the “[Secret Service was] very concerned” when it found the stand the Thursday prior to his interview, shortly before President Trump arrived. As a result of that worry, FBI Director Kash Patel ordered an “immediate response” into the situation.
Continuing, the Deputy Director explained that the FBI sent a plane down to pick the stand up and fly it to the FBI’s investigatory lab so that any evidence of whose its was or what else was going on with it can be investigated, saying, “I believe we had our plane flown down there. This hunting stand was appropriately dismantled. It’s being flown to our lab.”
Explaining yet further that the full suite of tools available will be used to investigate the matter, the Deputy Director explained to Fox & Friends, “I believe it’s there right now, and all the forensic tools we have, from digital tools to biometric tools, are all going to be applied to try to find out who put this up there and why.”
Bongino then went on to explain that modifications to the security procedures used have already been made in response to the discovery of the hunting stand, given the massive danger it presented. He said, “I think you saw the modifications with the discovery of this hunting stand set up in the tree outside of West Palm Beach.”
Continuing with that point, he emphasized that the mission of protecting the president can’t fail even once, saying, “This is a zero-fail mission… You can’t have a mistake here… I’ve been a Secret Service agent and now an FBI agent and with the NYPD. I can tell you, this is one of those missions where there’s no do-overs.”
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Commenting in a similar level of sparse detail on the incident and how the stand was discovered before it was too late, Director Patel told Fox News, “Prior to the President’s return to West Palm Beach, USSS discovered what appeared to be an elevated hunting stand within sight line of the Air Force One landing zone.”
Further, Director Patel added, “No individuals were located at the scene. The FBI has since taken the investigatory lead, flying in resources to collect all evidence from the scene, and deploying our cell phone analytics capabilities.” Similarly, USSS chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi told the network, “There was no impact to any movements and no individuals were present or involved at the location.”