Secret Service report offers new details on failures during Trump assassination attempt
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Secret Service report into the July assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump said multiple staffers knew about clear line-of-sight risks but found them “acceptable” and that farm equipment intended to obstruct the view from the nearby building where the gunman opened fire was never used.
The internal review released Friday is the latest in a list of reports and investigations into the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which killed one rallygoer and wounded two others. Trump was shot in the ear before being hustled off the stage.
A Secret Service counter-sniper shot and killed the gunman, Thomas Crooks.
A classified version of the report, done by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, was shared with members of Congress, while a seven-page unclassified synopsis was released publicly Friday. An early version of the agency’s investigation into its own conduct was released in September.
The report largely echoed the findings of other investigations that have faulted poor communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement helping out that day and the agency’s failure to prevent nearby vantage points — including a building just 150 yards from the podium where Trump was to speak — from being used by the gunman.
But it provides more details into the failures by an agency navigating intense scrutiny over its performance in what has been described as a “no failure” mission protecting top U.S. leaders.
Line-of-sight issues
The report faulted Secret Service staffers for failing to find a way to ease the risk posed by a cluster of nearby buildings providing an unimpeded view of the podium.
Crooks climbed onto one of the buildings and fired eight shots before being killed.
“Multiple Secret Service personnel mistakenly assessed these line-of-sight risks to the former President as acceptable, leading to inadequate elimination,” the report said.
The report said supervisors had expected large pieces of farm equipment to be placed to obstruct the view between the buildings and the stage but in the end they weren’t used.
The report did not explain why they weren’t used, but said staffers who visited the site before the rally to plan for security did not tell their supervisors that the line-of-sight concerns hadn’t been addressed.
Communication problems
The report detailed how the Secret Service created a security room for the event where staffers from all the law enforcement agencies helping that day were to be based. But only the Pennsylvania State Police ended up having someone in the security room, while local emergency officials had a separate room, the report said.
“The advance team failed to follow up and ensure the Security Room was staffed according to Secret Service methodology,” the report said.
The internal review also said that a Secret Service counter-sniper team did not pick up a radio that the local law enforcement team had offered them, impairing their ability to communicate.
“These breakdowns in communication contributed significantly to the mission failure, leaving much of the law enforcement personnel performing protective operations, including former President Trump’s protective detail, unaware of key information leading up to the attempted assassination,” the report said.
The weather
The report suggested that the high temperatures that day and the need to take care of rallygoers feeling the effects of the heat played a role in diverting the attention of security personnel.
One of the local emergency management teams on the ground reported fielding 251 requests for medical assistance that day, the internal review said.
A “lack of coordination with campaign staff on these issues caused a higher-than-expected proportion of security personnel to be diverted into assisting with medical responses,” the report said.
Accountability
The Friday report did not detail whether anyone at the Secret Service had been fired or otherwise reprimanded. It did suggest that the performance of some staffers might warrant “corrective counseling” or “disciplinary action” and vowed accountability for anyone found to have violated agency policy.
The agency’s Office of Integrity will now review the findings.
The Associated Press has previously reported that at least five Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty. The director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned more than a week after the shooting, saying she took full responsibility for the lapse.