In an obvious effort to protect impeached Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle pretended to testify Monday before the House Oversight Committee about the shooting of former President Donald Trump. Her obvious assignment was to stonewall, hide behind “ongoing investigations,” and simply refuse to answer questions she had the answers to.

One question that was answered is a total bombshell. During her testimony, Cheatle admitted that sometimes radio communications between Secret Service details are recorded, but “we do not have radio communications” from the day of the assassination attempt.

Here’s the video and transcript where we learn of yet another jaw-dropping failure in an event filled with jaw-dropping failures:

Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC): Does the Secret Service routinely record communications between and amongst detail?

[Long, awkward pause.]

Cheatle: Radio communications?

Fry: Any communication.

Cheatle: Email communications are captured as well as text messages, and, then, depending on the detail, radio communications are recorded.

Fry: Does the Secret Service have recorded communications from the July 13 event?

Cheatle: We do not have radio communications from that day.

Let’s understand something here…

First off, this is the same Secret Service that erased vital text messages around January 6:

The Secret Service erased text messages from both Jan. 6 and the day before the attack on the Capitol after the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog requested records of electronic communications tied to the insurrection, according to a letter sent to congressional committees that was obtained by NBC News.

The details about the erased messages were revealed in a letter to two congressional committees Wednesday, in which Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said he was informed that many of the messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, had been erased “as part of a device-replacement program.”

Second, note what Cheatle says there. This is important. She says that “depending on the detail” radio communications are recorded.

So, we have a former president who is the current favorite to be our next president and who is under a viable threat from Iran…Why in the world, knowing all that, would the Secret Service not record radio communications during that detail?

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Third, why aren’t all radio communications recorded? In the digital age, this isn’t difficult. It does not require an enormous amount of inconvenience or storage space. This is also history. This is also, in the case of an assassination or attempted assassination, crucial to any ongoing investigation. You’re telling me some police officer in Nowhere, Iowa, can record everything with a body cam, but the United States Secret Service, with its eight billion dollar budget, cannot record radio communications when protecting the current frontrunner for the presidency?

This is bullshit.

This whole thing stinks of a conspiracy and cover-up, which is not something I say lightly. In this house, Oswald worked alone, the earth is round, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, and putting fluoride in the water was a good idea. But this…THIS…?

Cheatle’s testimony was outrageous in its deflections and stonewalling. Her presentation was indefensible and suspicious in the extreme. She wasn’t testifying about something like the breakdown of the Obamacare site. A former president — and likely the next president— came within a millimeter of having his brains blown out.

On top of that are these gob-smacking security failures, none of which Cheatle refuted:

As I wrote earlier on Monday:

Either the Secret Service is so inept it is a clear and present danger to democracy or the Secret Service cooperated in a plot to assassinate a man the Biden administration wanted stopped after everything else had failed. And, then, only after it failed, did a defeated Biden drop out of the race.

And that was before I knew there were no radio communication recordings available from that day.

I also find it odd that this was the one thing she was forthcoming on, the one thing she seemed to want to volunteer and share. Why? To get us used to the idea is why. Dropping a bombshell in an offhand way is how you try to control the explosion.

This whole thing stinks from noon to Sunday.

John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.