Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump is assisted by Secret Service agents as multiple gunshots ring out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
The U.S. Secret Service said Friday that the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in July was due to “carelessness” on the part of its own agents and a lack of communication with local law enforcement.
“As I have said, this was a failure of the United States Secret Service,” Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Lowe said at a press conference.
It is the first time that authorities have publicly disclosed the full extent of the internal conflict that led to the attack since the July 13 shooting that left one spectator dead.
The Secret Service’s chief security planner for the presidential rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, was Thomas Crooks, who fired shots at Trump before being shot and killed.
But authorities “did not provide clear instructions or guidance to our local law enforcement partners,” Rowe said, and there was “a lack of communication between law enforcement personnel on the ground.”
Trump was grazed by a bullet in his ear. Rally attendees behind him, Corey Comperatore, were killed and two others were seriously injured.
Visibility issues at Republican candidate rally sites were known but not effectively addressed in advance, Rowe continued.
“While some members of the advance team were very diligent, the letdown of others led to a breach of security protocols regarding accountability,” he added.
Rowe said those employees will be held accountable.
Rowe took over as head of the Secret Service after former director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on July 23, just 10 days after the assassination attempt.
The FBI is investigating another assassination attempt on Trump, which took place Sunday at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
That day, a Secret Service agent opened fire after spotting what appeared to be a rifle protruding from among the trees on the edge of the golf course. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested later that same day and charged with two federal firearms offenses.
In his remarks on Friday, Lowe pointed to the golf club incident and called for a “paradigm shift” in how the Secret Service operates to counter “evolving” threat levels.
This is an evolving story, please check back for updates.
