Secret Service is responsible for multiple security failures in Trump attack July 13, report says
Posted on 09/20/2024
The Secret Service is responsible for multiple security failures that led to the July 13 assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., according to the results of the first report on the attack released Friday.
The elite protective agency’s internal review found that agents failed to use technology that might have detected the attacker as he flew a drone over the rally venue hours earlier. Trump’s protective detail had no idea police were frantically searching for a suspicious person, until shots were fired into the crowd.
And the Secret Service, which is the lead agency in charge of security for presidents, former leaders and other top U.S. officials, never directed local police snipers to cover a nearby rooftop even though the snipers were willing to do it, the report found.
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Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able that day to clamber atop that roof and fire multiple shots, killing rally goer Corey Comperatore and injuring others, including Trump. A Secret Service sniper stationed near Trump returned fire, killing Crooks.
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Trump rally shooting
The Washington Post built a 3D model of the site of the attempted assassination at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania based on more than 40 videos and photos. The Post’s analysis found that two Secret Service countersniper teams may not have been able to see the shooter at first.
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The official report is a sparse, five-page summary of the agency’s internal investigation so far into its organizational culture, leadership and staff to identify “potential causes” for the “mission failure” at the rally and ways to improve. Many of the findings are already public through media reports or congressional hearings.
The report is the 60-day internal review that former director Kimberly Cheatle said was underway immediately after the shooting. She had been reluctant to share early details of the inquiry with Congress, leading frustrated lawmakers to call for her to resign, and she stepped down days later.
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Her deputy, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., became acting director on July 23.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13th, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” Rowe said at a news briefing Friday announcing the report’s findings.
Rowe said the review found flaws in both the advance planning ahead of Trump’s visit and its implementation. The security breaches were due, in part, to “complacency” by some agents, and the employees involved “will be held accountable,” Rowe said. He repeatedly declined to elaborate on what specific discipline they could face.Rowe also declined to say how many agents could face discipline, but said he had not asked anyone to retire.
The review is separate from a probe looking into a second possible assassination attempt against Trump on Sunday. A Secret Service agent saw an armed man on the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, while Trump was golfing, and the agent fired shots. No one was injured and the suspect was later arrested. Rowe has praised the agents for their planning and security during that incident.
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At the briefing Friday, Rowe described the results Sunday as a success, saying that the agent who spotted the armed man “identified a threat ... and he made swift decisions and took a swift action to be able to mitigate that.”
Trump is getting the highest level of Secret Service protection, similar to President Biden, and receiving “more robust” security than othr former presidents since leaving office, Rowe said.
“While July 13 is a failure, we’re not proud of it, but we certainly have been rising to this moment,” Rowe said. Agents “are working tirelessly to make sure that the people we protect are safe.”
Rowe has said the July 13 security breach was not a result of a lack of resources, but a failure to anticipate a possible threat.
“We’re in the risk mitigation business," Rowe said. “We are not in the risk elimination business. And so we have to be able to have the personnel, the assets, and be able to spread those out for an indefinite period of time in the event that another situation ... requires us to do so.”
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He said the Secret Service began making changes soon afterward, including expanding security for Trump and others under the agency’s protection. More than 40 officials, families and foreign dignitaries have protective details.
The report about July 13 comes as the Secret Service and its overseeing agency, the Department of Homeland Security, are negotiating with Congress to dramatically increase the agency’s budget to expand the number of agents and investigators, to upgrade equipment such as armored limousines, and to create more realistic training studios at the agency’s dated training center in Maryland.
Officials have declined to provide details about how much they want the $3 billion a year, 7,000-plus employee agency to expand, but DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview this week that the agency is seeking a “significant” budget increase.
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Rowe also said he is actively involved in negotiations with Congress in hopes of increasing the agency’s budget, staffing and technology. He said he will hire more than 400 special agents over the next year and that applications “are at an all-time high."
”We are not capitalizing on a crisis. We are showing the math," he said of his efforts to secure more funding. “I am hopeful and I am certainly engaged in these discussions and I feel like in the eed that we will get there, because we have no other choice.”
Multiple additional investigations are ongoing into the shooting, including by the FBI, Congress and the DHS inspector general, the agency’s independent watchdog.
President Joe Biden also ordered a 45-day independent review of the Secret Service’s preparation and handling of the rally and its overall policies and procedures. The review’s results are expected in early October, DHS has said.
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Most of the summary focuses on lapses in the Secret Service’s advance team and its coordination with state and local law enforcement before the attack.
Secret Service agents and state and local law enforcement used different radio frequencies and gathered in separate facilities, hindering them from urgently sharing information electronically or in person. The Secret Service had its own security room, while Butler County Emergency Services had a separate command post.
As a result, when local authorities were searching for Crooks in the crowd, some did not know that the Secret Service was not directly hearing their radio transmissions, the report said.
“If this information was passed over Secret Service radio frequencies it would have allowed (Trump’s) protective detail to determine whether to move their protectee while the search for the suspicious suspect was in progress.”
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Instead, this vital warning was transmitted in “staggered or fragmented fashion” via cellular phones.
Secret Service agents and a local tactical team operating on the second floor of the American Glass Research building, where Crooks climbed on top of the roof, did not plan beforehand to cover the building, even though it had a clear line of sight of the podium where Trump spoke that day.
Internal investigators found that the local snipers would have positioned themselves on top of that roof had they been asked.
Trump’s protective detail had a counter drone system for the visit to Butler, Pa., but they experienced technical difficulties and did not use it.
“It is possible that if this element of the advance had functioned properly, the shooter may have been detected as he flew his drone near the Butler Farm Show venue earlier in the day,” the report said.
The elite protective agency’s internal review found that agents failed to use technology that might have detected the attacker as he flew a drone over the rally venue hours earlier. Trump’s protective detail had no idea police were frantically searching for a suspicious person, until shots were fired into the crowd.
And the Secret Service, which is the lead agency in charge of security for presidents, former leaders and other top U.S. officials, never directed local police snipers to cover a nearby rooftop even though the snipers were willing to do it, the report found.
Advertisement
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able that day to clamber atop that roof and fire multiple shots, killing rally goer Corey Comperatore and injuring others, including Trump. A Secret Service sniper stationed near Trump returned fire, killing Crooks.
Skip to end of carousel
Trump rally shooting
The Washington Post built a 3D model of the site of the attempted assassination at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania based on more than 40 videos and photos. The Post’s analysis found that two Secret Service countersniper teams may not have been able to see the shooter at first.
End of carousel
The official report is a sparse, five-page summary of the agency’s internal investigation so far into its organizational culture, leadership and staff to identify “potential causes” for the “mission failure” at the rally and ways to improve. Many of the findings are already public through media reports or congressional hearings.
The report is the 60-day internal review that former director Kimberly Cheatle said was underway immediately after the shooting. She had been reluctant to share early details of the inquiry with Congress, leading frustrated lawmakers to call for her to resign, and she stepped down days later.
Advertisement
Her deputy, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., became acting director on July 23.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13th, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” Rowe said at a news briefing Friday announcing the report’s findings.
Rowe said the review found flaws in both the advance planning ahead of Trump’s visit and its implementation. The security breaches were due, in part, to “complacency” by some agents, and the employees involved “will be held accountable,” Rowe said. He repeatedly declined to elaborate on what specific discipline they could face.Rowe also declined to say how many agents could face discipline, but said he had not asked anyone to retire.
The review is separate from a probe looking into a second possible assassination attempt against Trump on Sunday. A Secret Service agent saw an armed man on the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, while Trump was golfing, and the agent fired shots. No one was injured and the suspect was later arrested. Rowe has praised the agents for their planning and security during that incident.
Advertisement
At the briefing Friday, Rowe described the results Sunday as a success, saying that the agent who spotted the armed man “identified a threat ... and he made swift decisions and took a swift action to be able to mitigate that.”
Trump is getting the highest level of Secret Service protection, similar to President Biden, and receiving “more robust” security than othr former presidents since leaving office, Rowe said.
“While July 13 is a failure, we’re not proud of it, but we certainly have been rising to this moment,” Rowe said. Agents “are working tirelessly to make sure that the people we protect are safe.”
Rowe has said the July 13 security breach was not a result of a lack of resources, but a failure to anticipate a possible threat.
“We’re in the risk mitigation business," Rowe said. “We are not in the risk elimination business. And so we have to be able to have the personnel, the assets, and be able to spread those out for an indefinite period of time in the event that another situation ... requires us to do so.”
Advertisement
He said the Secret Service began making changes soon afterward, including expanding security for Trump and others under the agency’s protection. More than 40 officials, families and foreign dignitaries have protective details.
The report about July 13 comes as the Secret Service and its overseeing agency, the Department of Homeland Security, are negotiating with Congress to dramatically increase the agency’s budget to expand the number of agents and investigators, to upgrade equipment such as armored limousines, and to create more realistic training studios at the agency’s dated training center in Maryland.
Officials have declined to provide details about how much they want the $3 billion a year, 7,000-plus employee agency to expand, but DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview this week that the agency is seeking a “significant” budget increase.
Advertisement
Rowe also said he is actively involved in negotiations with Congress in hopes of increasing the agency’s budget, staffing and technology. He said he will hire more than 400 special agents over the next year and that applications “are at an all-time high."
”We are not capitalizing on a crisis. We are showing the math," he said of his efforts to secure more funding. “I am hopeful and I am certainly engaged in these discussions and I feel like in the eed that we will get there, because we have no other choice.”
Multiple additional investigations are ongoing into the shooting, including by the FBI, Congress and the DHS inspector general, the agency’s independent watchdog.
President Joe Biden also ordered a 45-day independent review of the Secret Service’s preparation and handling of the rally and its overall policies and procedures. The review’s results are expected in early October, DHS has said.
Advertisement
Most of the summary focuses on lapses in the Secret Service’s advance team and its coordination with state and local law enforcement before the attack.
Secret Service agents and state and local law enforcement used different radio frequencies and gathered in separate facilities, hindering them from urgently sharing information electronically or in person. The Secret Service had its own security room, while Butler County Emergency Services had a separate command post.
As a result, when local authorities were searching for Crooks in the crowd, some did not know that the Secret Service was not directly hearing their radio transmissions, the report said.
“If this information was passed over Secret Service radio frequencies it would have allowed (Trump’s) protective detail to determine whether to move their protectee while the search for the suspicious suspect was in progress.”
Advertisement
Instead, this vital warning was transmitted in “staggered or fragmented fashion” via cellular phones.
Secret Service agents and a local tactical team operating on the second floor of the American Glass Research building, where Crooks climbed on top of the roof, did not plan beforehand to cover the building, even though it had a clear line of sight of the podium where Trump spoke that day.
Internal investigators found that the local snipers would have positioned themselves on top of that roof had they been asked.
Trump’s protective detail had a counter drone system for the visit to Butler, Pa., but they experienced technical difficulties and did not use it.
“It is possible that if this element of the advance had functioned properly, the shooter may have been detected as he flew his drone near the Butler Farm Show venue earlier in the day,” the report said.
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