Secret Service report offers new details on failures in Trump assassination attempt | News, Sports, Work

FILE. Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

By REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Secret Service report into the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump says several employees knew about obvious line-of-sight risks but disclosed them “acceptable” and that farm equipment intended to block the view from the nearby building where the shooter opened fire was never used.

The internal review released Friday is the latest in a series of reports and investigations into the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one rally-goer dead and two others injured. Trump was shot in the ear before being escorted off the stage.

A Secret Service sniper shot and killed the shooter, Thomas Crooks.

A classified version of the report, prepared by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, was shared with members of Congress, while a seven-page unclassified synopsis was released Friday. An early version of the agency’s investigation into its own conduct was released in September.

The report largely echoes the findings of other investigations that found poor communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies assisting that day and the agency’s failure to prevent nearby vantage points, including a building just 150 yards from the podium where Trump was scheduled to speak. — from use by a weapon bearer.

But it provides more details about the failures of the agency, which is scrutinizing its activities in what has been described as “no failures” mission to protect senior US leadership.

Line of sight problems

The report accused the Secret Service of failing to find a way to reduce the risk associated with the clustering of nearby buildings that provide an unobstructed view of the catwalk.

Crooks climbed onto one of the buildings and fired eight shots before being killed.

“Several Secret Service employees mistakenly assessed these line-of-sight risks to the former president as acceptable, resulting in an inadequate removal,” the report says.

The report said that the supervisors expected large pieces of farm equipment to be placed to block the view between the buildings and the stage, but in the end they were not used.

The report did not explain why they were not used, but said staff who visited the site before the rally to plan security measures did not tell their supervisors that line-of-sight issues had not been resolved.

Communication problems

The report detailed how the Secret Service set up a security room for the event, where all law enforcement officers assisting that day were to be based. But only Pennsylvania State Police found anyone in the security room, while local emergency responders had a separate room, the report said.

“The advance team failed to take steps to ensure that the security room was staffed according to Secret Service methodology,” the report says.

The internal review also found that a group of Secret Service snipers did not take a radio that was offered to them by a local law enforcement team, impairing their ability to communicate.

“These communication breakdowns contributed significantly to the failure of the mission, leaving the majority of law enforcement officers performing protective operations, including former President Trump’s bodyguards, unaware of key information that led to the assassination attempt.” the report says.

Weather

The report said the high temperatures that day and the need to care for heat-affected rally participants played a role in distracting security officials.

One local emergency management team on the ground reported fielding 251 requests for medical assistance that day, an internal review said.

AND “lack of coordination on these issues with campaign personnel resulted in a greater than expected proportion of security personnel being deployed to assist in the medical response,” the report says.

Responsibility

Friday’s report did not say whether anyone in the Secret Service had been fired or otherwise reprimanded. This suggested that the performance of some employees may be justified “corrective counseling” or “disciplinary sanctions” and promised to hold anyone who violated agency policy accountable.

The agency’s Office of Integrity will now review the findings.

The Associated Press previously reported that at least five Secret Service agents had been reassigned. Then-director Kimberly Cheatle resigned more than a week after filming, saying she took full responsibility for the failure.