Secret Service report highlights failures before attempted Trump assassination

(CN) — Poor communication and technological failures created an opening for a 20-year-old gunman to open fire on former President Donald Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, an internal review by the Secret Service found.

Agents failed to use a device that might have detected the attacker, Thomas Matthew Crooks, as he flew a drone over the rally venue before the shooting, according to a summary of the review released Friday.

The agency maintained a command post and radio channel separate from local authorities — leading to a communication breakdown as officers and agents scrambled to find the armed suspect, the report found. The Secret Service also never told local police snipers to monitor the rooftop where Crooks opened fire.

Eight shots rained down on the rally before snipers spotted Crooks and killed him.

One bullet grazed the former president’s ear, forcing him to the ground as agents clambered on top of him. A 50-year-old rallygoer was killed by gunfire, while two others were injured.

Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe acknowledged at a press conference Friday that the shooting was a failure by the agency.

“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13," he said, and that “we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again.”

Rowe said the agency has nearly completed its internal review of the attempted assassination — a shocking event that shook up the presidential election mere days before the Republican National Convention.

The fiasco led to the resignation of the service’s former director, Kimberly Cheatle. Five agents were also placed on restricted duty. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and Pennsylvania State Police are also conducting independent investigations into the shooting.

Scrutiny of the nation’s elite protection agency has only intensified since then. A 54-year-old man was arrested Sunday in Florida after agents spotted him hiding in the woods with a firearm about 400 yards from Trump.

The incident demonstrated the agency has been operating in an “increasingly dynamic threat environment” since the July 13 rally, Rowe said Friday. He said the service needed to become capable of offering high-level protection to numerous officials for undetermined periods of time, which he said would require “additional personnel, technical assets and equipment.”

The five-page document on Friday summarized key conclusions from the service’s internal review.

The document says communication deficiencies hampered protective efforts during the rally.

For instance, a tactical team was located on the second floor of a building in the same complex from which Crooks began firing — and yet that team had no contact with Secret Service before the rally. Multiple law enforcement entities questioned the effectiveness of the team’s position in the building, but “there was no follow-up discussion,” the report states.

Local police also did not know Secret Service agents were operating a separate communication center during the rally, the review found.

That means federal agents were mostly in the dark as officers searched for Crooks before the shooting. Some details did reach federal agents, but information was relayed by cellphone “in staggered or fragmented fashion" instead of through official channels, according to the report.

Trump’s protective detail was unaware of the intense manhunt, the report states. Had they known, they may have chosen to move Trump while the search was in progress.

Technical issues also prevented agents from using a device to identify and counter drones before the rally, according to the report.

“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 states.

Secret Service also had concerns about the rally site — a 100-acre fairground with line-of-sight issues — but agents did not take steps to mitigate the vulnerabilities. The service also seemed to lack knowledge about the area, which was surrounded by wooded areas and buildings.

“The lack of due diligence in site construction was evident,” the report notes.

The House on Friday voted unanimously in support of a bill that would direct the Secret Service to apply uniform standards for the protection of presidents, vice presidents and major candidates for high office.

The bill, which was introduced by New York representatives Mike Lawler, a Republican, and Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, does not provide additional funding for the agency. Nonetheless, it would codify protections President Joe Biden implemented after Trump’s shooting.

“The two recent attempts on former President Trump’s life showed the world that unfortunately, the Secret Service has serious gaps in protection," the representatives said in a joint statement Friday. “More must be done to ensure no one can take advantage of those vulnerabilities.”

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