An independent panel investigating the July 13 assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump has issued a scathing report about the Secret Service, calling the agency “bureaucratic, complacent, and static.”
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved,” the panel said.
The panel, commissioned by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, criticized the agency’s “troubling lack of critical thinking”, which happened at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The gunman, Thomas Crooks, fired at Trump, grazing the former president’s ear and killing a man in the crowd, Corey Comperatore. They injured two others. The panel called for a reform in the agency and cited, “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
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What the independent panel said
The 51-page report, released Thursday, details Secret Service agents failed to inform Trump’s security detail about Crooks, who had been identified as a potential threat more than 20 minutes before the shooting. According to the report, at least two Secret Service agents were aware of Crooks’ suspicious behaviour but did not communicate it effectively.
The panel, composed of former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, former acting Attorney General Mark Filip, former Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend, and former Maryland State Police Superintendent David Mitchell, noted a “troubling lack of critical thinking” by Secret Service personnel both before and after the attack.
The 51-page report also noted, “Bravery and selflessness alone, no matter how honourable, are insufficient to discharge the Secret Service’s no-fail protective mission.”
How the shooting unfolded?
The timeline of the event provided in the report revealed a series of missteps. Local law enforcement first spotted Crooks at 4:26 p.m. when he “snuck” into a restricted area near a building called the AGR building, which had a direct line of sight to the rally stage.
However, the Secret Service did not become aware of Crooks’ presence until 5:44 p.m. Despite this, Crooks was not apprehended until 6:10 p.m., by which time he had already fired eight shots at Trump before being killed by a Secret Service agent.
Plus, the drone detection technology meant to monitor the area had technical problems and was not deployed until 4:30 p.m. Had it worked, agents might have detected Crooks surveilling the rally with his own drone. The panel noted that a “chaotic mixture” of texts, phone calls, radio communications, and emails led to confusion among law enforcement.
At least nine Secret Service personnel were aware of Crooks’ suspicious activity, but none of this information reached Trump’s security detail, who could have delayed his appearance on stage until Crooks was located. A “do more with less” mindset, and the agency’s formulaic approach to security failed to account for the specific threats that Trump faced.
