multiple secret intelligence agencies failure The shooting occurred ahead of former President Donald Trump’s July rally. fired a gun A bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday said the incidents were “foreseeable, avoidable, and directly related to the events that led to the assassination attempt that day.”
Same as agency’s own internal investigation A bipartisan House investigation is underway, but an interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures at nearly every level ahead of Butler, Pennsylvania. shootingIncludes planning, communication, security, and resource allocation.
“The consequences of those failures have been dire,” said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, Democratic chairman of the Homeland Committee.
Investigators found there was no clear chain of command between the Secret Service and other security agencies, and no plan to cover the building the gunman climbed to open fire. Authorities were operating on several separate radio channels, leading to loss of communication and inexperienced drone operators being stranded at helplines with equipment not working properly.
Peters said communication between security officials was a “multi-level game of telephone.”
The report said the Secret Service received a call about a person on the roof of the building about two minutes before the shooting. thomas matthew crooks He opened fire, firing eight shots at President Trump within 150 yards of where the former president was speaking. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, A bullet or bullet fragment hits the ear The assassination attempt left one protester dead and two others injured, and the gunman was later killed by a Secret Service counter sniper.
Approximately 22 seconds before Crooks opened fire, a local police officer radioed a warning that there was an armed person in the building, the report said. However, that information was not passed on to key Secret Service officials who were interviewed by Senate investigators.
The committee also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing an officer run toward the building where the gunman was standing with his gun drawn, but that person saw Mr. Trump from the podium. He said he had no intention of notifying anyone to come down.
The Senate report was released days after the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the agency’s key conclusions that have not yet been finalized. report What went wrong and ahead of Thursday’s hearing held by the bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting. The House committee also second assassination attempt The remarks about President Trump were made earlier this month when the Secret Service arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, said in a statement Wednesday that the agency has already implemented some of the committee’s recommendations and is working with Congressional and other oversight agencies investigating the July 13 shooting. He said he pledged to work transparently with institutions. He said authorities have already elevated President Trump’s security to “the highest level of protection that the United States Secret Intelligence Service can provide.”
“We are also passionate about long-term solutions to challenges such as enhancing communications and interoperability with federal, state, and local partners to ensure coordinated efforts during conservation events are seamless.” “We are considering it,” he said.
Each investigation uncovers new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say there is still much they want to uncover to prevent it from happening again.
“This is the result of a combination of human failures by the Secret Service,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican chairman.
The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protection event, including appointing a single person responsible for approving all security plans. Investigators found that many of those responsible evaded responsibility, denying responsibility for planning or security failures.
According to the report, forward officials heard by the committee said that “planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval.”
Communication with local authorities was also inadequate. Two days ago, local police raised concerns about the security coverage of the building where the gunman was sitting, telling Secret Service agents entering the building that they did not have the personnel to lock it down. Secret Service officials then gave investigators conflicting accounts of who was in charge of maintaining that security, the report said.
An internal investigation released by the Secret Service last week found multiple issues, including a lack of clear guidance for local law enforcement and a failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally site that exposed Trump to sniper attack. The details of the communication failure are also detailed. “Complacency” among some agents.
“This was a failure by the U.S. Secret Service, and it is important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failure of July 13th and apply the lessons learned to ensure that such a failure never occurs again. ” said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency’s acting director, after the report was released.
In addition to better defining responsibility for cases, the senators recommended that the agency overhaul its communications practices in protection cases and improve information sharing. They also recommended that Congress assess whether more resources are needed.
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are There was no consensus on whether to provide more funding to the Secret Service. In the wake of that failure. Spending bills expected to pass by the end of the month include: Another $231 million But many Republicans say internal reforms are needed first.
“This is a business problem, plain and simple,” said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Land Committee’s investigations subcommittee.