A Senate investigative report on the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump revealed several glaring security errors made by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), including the hours-long debacle of an agent overseeing the drone system trying to troubleshoot the devices by calling a toll-free tech support hotline.
The interim report, released Wednesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, detailed how the USSS failed to secure the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally and the building from which gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks allegedly took shots at Trump.
Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI), Rand Paul (R-KY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) highlighted the 94-page document’s key takeaways in a statement, decrying how the agency “failed to clearly define responsibilities for planning and security.”
“USSS personnel responsible for planning in advance of the July 13 rally denied that they were individually responsible for any planning or security failures and deflected blame,” the bipartisan group of senators said, adding that “USSS Advance Leads told the Committee that planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval.”
The committee’s investigation has not only revealed that no specific person with the Secret Service has owned up to approving the failed security measures, but also exposed that not one agent entered or went onto the roof of the AGR International building where Crooks was perched prior to the shooting.
“USSS identified the AGR building as a concern due to the line-of-sight from the roof to the stage, but did not take steps to ensure sufficient security measures were in place,” the committee members found.
“USSS personnel, including the USSS Counter Sniper Team Leader, did not enter the AGR building or go on the roof prior to the shooting,” they continued. “One USSS counter sniper team, whose responsibility included scanning the area around the AGR building for threats, had an obstructed view of the AGR roof.”
The first time USSS agents entered the building and went onto the roof was after Crooks fatally shot one audience member, seriously injured two others, and grazed Trump’s ear.
The agency also failed to coordinate with local and state law enforcement, by not giving them “any specific instructions for covering the AGR building” and not ensuring that agents could “share information with local law enforcement partners in real time.”
“USSS did not adequately consider state and local law enforcement operational plans,” the senators stated.
USSS also denied specific requests for additional Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) capabilities and a Counter Assault Team liaison, the report found.
“A USSS Counter Surveillance Unit – which could have helped patrol the outer perimeter that included the AGR building – was not requested by USSS Advance Leads,” the senators added.
The lack of technological support on the ground led to the C-UAS having issues that “left it inoperable for hours” without a backup system, prompting the agent responsible for overseeing the system — who only had three months of experience — to call a tech support hotline “to start troubleshooting with the company.”
That setback took “several hours,” the committee stated.
On top of that, several USSS officials reported that their radios were also having technical problems at the rally — and told the Committee that that was a common occurrence at the agency.
Soon after the assassination attempt occurred, multiple rally goers reported that they had seen Crooks on the roof before Trump took to the stage and tried to alert agents for several minutes, to no avail.
Just after 5:00 p.m. that day, a local SWAT officer took a photo of Crooks and identified him as a suspicious person, ABC News reported. This was an hour before Trump took the stage.
The Senate report confirmed that USSS personnel were not notified until about 5:44 p.m., but still did not neutralize the threat in the approximately 20 minutes they had before the former president began speaking.
“At approximately 5:44 pm, USSS personnel were notified that local law enforcement observed a suspicious person with a rangefinder near the AGR building. By 5:52 pm, at least eight USSS personnel had been informed,” the senators said. “Approximately two minutes before shots were fired, the USSS Security Room, located on the rally grounds, was told that there was an individual on the roof of the AGR building. Shortly before shots were fired, a USSS counter sniper observed local officers running towards the AGR building with guns drawn.”
Another several minutes went by after Trump began speaking before Crooks fired at least eight rounds at him, according to the ABC timeline.
All four senators had harsh words about the shocking failures from the Secret Service.
“From planning missteps, to the siloed and flawed communication to the lack of effective coordination between law enforcement, to the breakdowns in technology, the Secret Service’s failures that allowed an assassination attempt on former President Trump at his July 13 rally were shocking, unacceptable, and preventable – and they led to tragic consequences,” said committee Chairman Peters. “Moving forward, our bipartisan interim report makes recommendations for needed reforms to address these serious failures, provide accountability and transparency for the American people, and ensure that the Secret Service has the tools and resources they need to prevent another disaster like this from happening.”
According to Paul, Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the interim report revealed “an inexcusable dereliction of duty.”
Paul continued:
Not only did USSS fail to ensure the AGR roof was adequately covered, they were also aware of a suspicious individual with a rangefinder for at least 27 minutes and did not delay proceedings or remove former President Trump from the stage, even after being informed that the suspicious individual was on the roof of the AGR building. Someone needs to be held accountable for these egregious failures by the USSS, and despite USSS, DHS, FBI, ATF, and other federal agencies’ continued obstruction of our bipartisan investigation, I will continue to push for answers and accountability.
Sen. Blumenthal, the chairman of the committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the errors “produced a perfect storm of stunning failure.”
“It was a tragedy and completely preventable from the outset. There was both a failure to provide resources – like a working radio, drone detection system, or counter surveillance team – and lack of an effective chain of command,” he said, before adding that he is in favor of reforming the USSS as the investigation continues.
Ranking Member Johnson of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations added that the investigation is not complete, and accused federal agencies “like the Secret Service, FBI, and DOJ” of withholding records “that are vital to this Committee’s work.”
“There is still much more information that the public and Congress deserve to know,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “Going forward, this Committee must be prepared to use compulsory process to ensure that the American people have a complete and thorough understanding of the security failures that resulted in the multiple attempts on former President Trump’s life.”
