Thomas Crooks spotted on roof by Secret Service 10 minutes BEFORE Donald Trump took stage at Pennsylvania rally, sources say

Members of Congress learned that Thomas Crooks, Donald Trump’s potential assassin, was spotted by the Secret Service 10 minutes before he walked on stage and 20 minutes before he was shot.

On Saturday, the 20-year-old Crooks shot Trump multiple times, hitting his ear, injuring several attendees and tragically killing former firefighter Corey Comperatore.

After waiting days to learn more about the assassination attempt, lawmakers were briefed Wednesday by the FBI and Secret Service on key details of the ongoing investigation.

Sources close to the call told DailyMail.com that more than an hour passed between the time the gunman was spotted and the first shot he fired. Even more disturbing, Secret Service snipers spotted Crooks on the roof 20 minutes before he shot the former president.

At 5:52 p.m., the “suspected” shooter was spotted on the roof by snipers.

Trump walked onto the stage at 6:02 p.m.

Around 6:12 p.m., Crooks’ first shots rang out.

“They let an awful lot of time pass before they shoot,” the source said.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) confirmed this in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.

“They had already identified the shooter as a ‘suspect’ 19 minutes before the shooting,” he posted.

Lee said senators were only allowed to ask four questions during the briefing, which he described as “arbitrarily shortening the conversation.”

To make matters worse, officials at the briefing provided no information about why their response was taking so long.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle did not know how Crooks ended up on the roof, the source said.

During the phone call, Crooks’ possible motive for committing such an atrocity was also brought into question.

Officials could not confirm a motive for the operation, saying its reasoning remains a mystery.

Image of shooting suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks

A Secret Service anti-sniper unit can be seen on the roof behind Trump. It is believed that this team returned fire at Crooks after he shot Trump.

They said they have not yet found any ideological material that could shed light on why Crooks decided to shoot the former president.

However, they did reveal that the scammers controlled multiple accounts on encrypted platforms and are still trying to gain access, the source said.

He was identified as a suspicious person because [he had] a rangefinder and a backpack. And this was over an hour before the shooting actually occurred,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Wednesday afternoon on Fox News.

‘So you would think that in that hour you should not lose sight of the individual.’

“Someone should be following up on this stuff. There’s no evidence at all that it’s happening.”

The Wyoming Republican later released a statement describing the meeting as a “100 percent ass-covering briefing.”

A screenshot of a video shows the shooter was killed by the Secret Service, an agency source said.

Police personnel stand over the body of the shooter on a rooftop near the Trump rally

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has still not resigned despite calls to do so.

U.S. Secret Service agents surround the stage as other agents keep an eye on Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle called the agency’s actions at Tuesday night’s meeting “unacceptable,” but she had previously tried to shift blame to others.

Shortly after the shooting, she noted that local authorities were responsible for securing the building where Crooks was located.

Later on Tuesday, she retracted her decision, saying the Secret Service was “solely responsible” for failing to prevent the attack.

There are multiple investigations into the shooting, both within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency that oversees the Secret Service, and in Congress.

Cheatle is expected to testify about the shooting before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.