An independent, bipartisan investigation found “numerous errors” and “specific failures and breakdowns” by the U.S. Secret Service that enabled the assassination attempt that wounded former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. Identified.
The commission, made up of four former law enforcement and government officials, warned that unless the Secret Service immediately embarks on “fundamental reforms,” further catastrophic security deficiencies will emerge.
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent and static,” the committee said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the organization.
“The Secret Service as an agency needs fundamental reform in order to carry out its mission. Without that reform, the Independent Review Board concluded that another Butler could and would occur again.” The review committee believes,” the members added.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this review. A spokesperson previously told NBC News that the agency “has developed an agency-wide paradigm shift plan” to address known issues with staffing, training and technology usage.
Anthony Guglielmi, Director of Public Affairs for the Secret Service, said: “The increased demands on agencies in this dynamic threat environment are pushing our agents to their limits.” “We know this is not sustainable and we cannot risk another mission failure.”
According to the report, the committee conducted 58 interviews over several hours with Secret Service, federal, state, and local law enforcement officials and reviewed more than 7,000 documents. Panel members and staff also visited Butler to investigate the scene of the assassination attempt.
The group cited “what appears to be organizational or cultural issues,” including a “lack of critical thinking among Secret Service personnel” and a reluctance among agents to “speak up” about potential threats. It said it had identified “serious deficiencies in the Secret Service,” including:
long list of failures
The new report echoes much of what was previously reported about Secret Service failures before and during the July 13 rally. For example, Secret Service and other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials were not specifically tasked with securing the roof of the building where the gunman fired at Trump.
Mitigating line-of-sight from the building to the stage when necessary with physical barriers should be standard operating procedure for the Secret Service and “represents a significant security flaw,” the review said. There is.
President Trump’s Secret Service details are calling for additional preliminary work, including counter-sniper advances, especially since President Trump’s personal information had been read with “information related to long-range threats against former President Trump by foreign nationals.” I went before. Actor, but not unique to Butler Larry.
The Trump campaign later announced that Trump had been briefed by U.S. intelligence officials about a “real and concrete threat” from Iran to assassinate him.
The report concludes that Thomas Matthew Crooks’ “method of assassination attempt embodies exactly the type of threat that intelligence agencies have warned about.”
In a footnote, the report notes that “the committee encountered evidence that Trump campaign staff expressed resistance regarding the placement of certain heavy equipment and vehicles on the field, which would reduce line-of-sight risks.” It may have been used for.
The report said it was ultimately the Secret Service’s responsibility to ensure appropriate mitigation measures were taken and to “escalate differences between campaign staff and the Secret Service toward appropriate resolution.” .
Two hours before the assassination attempt, Crooks was able to operate the drone for about 11 minutes at the rally venue at 3:51 p.m. His drone went undetected because the Secret Service’s counter-drone system had a technical problem that kept it inactive for an extended period of time. In the end, the system did not start working until more than 30 minutes after the fraudsters used the drone.
The report also notes that the Secret Service and local law enforcement officials failed to discover the impostor, even though he was first identified as a suspicious person more than 90 minutes before he opened fire on President Trump. It also mentions.
Crooks was first identified by members of a local counter-sniper team who were finishing up their shift. He texted other counter-snipers, warning them that impostors had snuck into a parking lot that was supposed to be off-limits.
Most importantly, President Trump’s Secret Service officers were among the crowd before the former president took the stage or within minutes of Mr. Crooks taking up his position on the roof of the building and preparing to fire. They were not informed about the person acting suspiciously.
It wasn’t until President Trump began his speech that a Pennsylvania state trooper stationed at the Secret Service in the security room verbally informed him that the suspicious person who had been measuring the range on the podium was Crooks, and that he was now on the podium. It was 6:09 p.m., four minutes after. roof of the building.
The Secret Service security office had no direct view of the rally, and “incident command systems were not in place to centrally report and track events and issues that occurred.”
The panel recommended a series of reforms for the Secret Service to implement as soon as possible, including overhead surveillance for outdoor events, additional training, and establishing a central communications hub for large events. The committee also recommended including all participating law enforcement agencies.
Perhaps most surprising, the panel did not acknowledge that lack of funding was an underlying factor in the Secret Service’s failures. The agency’s budget has nearly doubled over the past decade, jumping from about $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2014 to more than $3 billion, according to government filings.
During the same period, agency-wide staffing increased by nearly 25% to more than 8,100 people. They include about 3,200 special agents and 1,300 uniformed police officers, according to the agency’s website.
The report concludes that the agency’s failures extend beyond spending. “Even an unlimited budget alone would not be able to repair many of the failures of July 13,” the report said.
