An independent, bipartisan investigation found “numerous mistakes” by the Secret Service and “specific failures and malfunctions” that enabled the assassination attempt that injured former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., in July.
The panel of four former senior law enforcement and government officials also warned of another catastrophic loss of security unless the Secret Service makes “fundamental reform” immediately.
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent and static,” the panel said in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the agency.
“The Secret Service as an agency requires substantial reform to fulfill its mission,” they added. “Without this reform, the Independent Review Board believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation. The agency has “developed an agency-wide paradigm shift plan” to address known issues with staffing, training and use of technology, a spokeswoman previously told NBC News.
“During this dynamic threat environment, the increased demand on the agency has resulted in our people being overstretched,” said Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service. “We understand that this is not sustainable and we cannot risk another mission failure.”
According to its report, the panel conducted 58-plus hours of interviews with Secret Service, federal, state and local law enforcement officials and reviewed more than 7,000 documents. Panel members and staff also traveled to Butler, where they investigated the site of the attempted assassination.
The group said they identified “deep flaws in the Secret Service, including some that appear to be systemic or cultural,” including a “lack of critical thinking among Secret Service personnel” and agents’ reluctance to “talk” about potential threats.
A long list of failures
The new report echoes much of what has previously been reported about Secret Service failures before and during the July 13 rally. For example, no agent of the Secret Service or any other federal state or local law enforcement agency was specifically tasked with guarding the roof of the building where the gunman shot at Trump.
It should have been standard operating procedure for the Secret Service to mitigate the line of sight from the building to the stage with physical barriers if necessary and “represents a critical security lapse,” the review said.
Trump’s Secret Service detail did additional advanced work before the rally, including a counter-sniper advance, especially as the leader and aide of Trump’s personal detail were read intelligence about a long-term threat against former President Trump. A foreign actor, though not unique to the Butler rally.
Trump’s campaign later said that Trump had been briefed by US intelligence officials about “real and specific threats” from Iran to assassinate him.
“Ironically, Crooks’ method of attempted assassination reflected the threat that intelligence had warned of,” the report concludes.
The report states that “the panel encountered some evidence of resistance by Trump Campaign personnel to the deployment of certain heavy equipment and/or vehicles at the site that could be used to mitigate the site’s risk.”
The report states that it is ultimately the responsibility of the Secret Service to ensure that appropriate mitigating measures are implemented and “to properly resolve areas of difference between the campaign staff and the service.”
Two hours before the assassination attempt, Crooks was able to fly the drone for about 11 minutes at the rally site at 3:51 p.m. His drone was not detected because the Secret Service’s anti-drone system had a malfunction and was down for a long time. Finally, after Crook used the drone, the system did not start for more than half an hour.
The report also describes the failure of the Secret Service or local law enforcement to locate Crooks, despite identifying him as a suspect more than ninety minutes before he shot Trump.
Crooks was first identified by a member of a local counter-sniper group who was about to resign. He sent a warning message to other counter-snipers that Crooks had entered a parking lot that was supposed to be off-limits and blocked off by physical barriers.
Crucially, Trump’s Secret Service leadership was never informed of a suspicious person in the crowd before the former president took the stage or minutes after Crooks took a position on the building’s roof to film.
It wasn’t until 6:09 p.m., four minutes after Trump began speaking, that a Pennsylvania State Trooper in the security room verbally identified Crooks as the suspect who had appeared on stage and was now on the roof. of a building.
The Secret Service Guard Room did not have a direct view of the rally stage and “did not have an operational Incident Command System for centralized reporting and tracking of incidents and emerging issues.”
The panel recommended a number of reforms to be implemented by the Secret Service as soon as possible, such as ground surveillance for outdoor events, additional training and the creation of a central communications and incident tracking center for large events. The panel also recommended the involvement of all participating law enforcement agencies.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the panel did not find that lack of funding was a major factor in the Secret Service’s failures. of the agency the budget has almost doubled in the last ten yearsIt grew from about $1.8 billion in fiscal 2014 to more than $3 billion, according to government filings.
During the same period, the total number of agency employees increased by almost 25% to more than 8,100 employees. Among them are about 3,200 special agents and 1,300 uniformed officers. agency website.
The report concludes that the agency’s failures go beyond costs. “Even an unlimited budget alone cannot fix many of the failures of July 13,” he said.