An independent, bipartisan investigation has identified “numerous mistakes” by the US Secret Service and “specific failures and failures” that enabled the July assassination attempt that injured former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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 Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the agency.
“As an agency, the Secret Service requires substantial reform to fulfill its mission,” the members added: “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation. A spokeswoman previously told NBC News that it has “developed an agency-wide paradigm shift plan” to address known issues with staffing, training and use of technology.
“During this dynamic threat environment, the increased demand on the agency has resulted in our people being overstretched,” said Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi. “We understand that this is not sustainable and we cannot risk another mission failure.”
According to its report, the panel conducted 58 hours of interviews with individuals from the Secret Service, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies 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 it found “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 assigned to secure the roof of the building where the gunman opened fire on 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 prior to the rally, including a counter-sniper advance, particularly as the leader and aide of Trump’s personal detail were read intelligence “regarding a long-term threat against former President Trump by a foreign individual.” Actor, though not typical of 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.
Thomas Matthew Crooks’ report concluded that “the method of assassination embodied the threat that intelligence had warned of.”
The report noted that “the panel encountered some evidence that Trump Campaign personnel objected to the placement of certain heavy equipment and/or vehicles on the site,” which could have been used to reduce visibility.
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 technical problem and was down for several hours. Finally, after Crooks 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 being identified as a suspect more than 90 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 the other counter-snipers that Crooks had entered a parking lot that was supposed to be off-limits and blocked off by physical barriers.
Crucially, the leadership of Trump’s Secret Service detail was never informed of anyone acting suspiciously in the crowd before the former president took the stage or minutes after Crooks set up on the roof of the building 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 announced that Crooks was the suspect who had come on stage and was now on stage. the roof of the building.
The Secret Service security room had no direct view of the rally stage and “no functioning Incident Command System for centralized reporting and tracking of incidents and emerging issues.”
The panel recommended a number of reforms that should be implemented by the Secret Service as soon as possible, such as weather surveillance for outdoor events, additional training and the creation of a central communications hub for large events. The panel also recommended the involvement of all participating law enforcement agencies.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the panel did not find a lack of funding as 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.
Over the same period, the agency’s headcount has grown by almost 25% to more than 8,100. 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.