Secret Service failures before Butler rally led to assassination attempt of Donald Trump, damning report finds

An investigation has revealed that multiple Secret Service failures ultimately led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a rally in July.

The Senate bipartisan investigation, released today, concluded that the failures leading up to the meeting were “foreseeable, avoidable, and directly related to the events leading up to the assassination attempt that day.”

Similar to the agency’s own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House inquiry, the interim report from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs found multiple failings at nearly every level leading up to the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.

This included planning, communication, security and resource allocation.

“The consequences of those failures were dire,” said Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland Panel.

The bipartisan Senate investigation — released today — concluded that the failures leading up to the meeting were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events leading up to the assassination attempt that day.” Pictured: Secret Service agents gather to slam Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally, July 13, 2024

Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command between the Secret Service and other intelligence agencies, and there was no plan to visualize the building the shooter climbed to fire.

Officials were working on multiple, separate radio channels, causing missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a helpline because his equipment was malfunctioning.

According to Peters, communication between security officials was like a multi-step telephone game.

The report found that the Secret Service was alerted to a person on the roof of the building about two minutes before gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire. He fired eight rounds in the direction of Trump, less than 450 feet (137 meters) from where the former president was speaking.

Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was hit in the ear by a bullet or bullet fragment during the assassination attempt. One protester was killed and two others were wounded before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

About 22 seconds before Crooks fired, the report said, a local officer radioed a warning that an armed person was in the building.

But that information was not passed on to key Secret Service officials questioned by Senate investigators.

The panel also interviewed a Secret Service sniper who said they saw agents running toward the building where the shooter was, guns drawn. However, the person said they didn’t think to alert anyone to get Trump off the stage.

The Senate report came just days after the Secret Service released a five-page document detailing key findings from a pending Secret Service report on what went wrong. The report was prepared ahead of a hearing Thursday by an independent House task force investigating the shooting.

The House committee is also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month, in which Secret Service agents arrested a man with a gun hiding on Trump’s Florida golf course.

Trump reacts to an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13

Police snipers return fire after shots were fired while Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13

Each investigation has yielded new details that point to a massive lapse in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say they want to know much more because they want to prevent something like this from happening again.

“This was the result of multiple human errors by the Secret Service,” said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the top Republican on the panel.

The senators advised the Secret Service to better define roles and responsibilities before any protective action is launched, including by designating a single person responsible for approving all security plans.

Researchers found that many executives denied responsibility for the planning or security failures and deflected blame.

The foremen interviewed by the commission stated that “planning and safety decisions were made jointly, with no specific person responsible for approval,” the report said.

Communication with local authorities was also poor. Local law enforcement had expressed concerns about the security of the building where the shooter was two days earlier, telling Secret Service agents during a walk-through of the building that they did not have enough manpower to lock it down.

Secret Service agents subsequently gave investigators conflicting accounts about who was responsible for that security coverage, the report said.

The internal investigation released last week by the Secret Service also found multiple communication failures, including a lack of clear guidance for local law enforcement and a failure to address vulnerabilities in visibility at the rally grounds, leaving Trump vulnerable to sniper fire and “complacency” among some agents.

“This was a failure of the United States Secret Service. It is important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13 and that we use the lessons learned to ensure that we do not experience such a failure again,” Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director, said after the report was released.

In addition to better defining responsibility for events, the senators recommended that the agency completely overhaul its communications activities during protective events and improve intelligence sharing.

The Butler Farm Show, site of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, seen on July 15, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

They also advised Congress to evaluate whether additional resources are needed.

Democrats and Republicans disagree over whether the Secret Service should get more money after its failures.

A bill expected to pass before the end of the month includes an additional $231 million for the agency, but many Republicans have said an internal overhaul is needed first.

“This is a simple management problem,” said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Homeland Panel’s investigative committee.