A recent Secret Service report also found communication failures between federal, state, and local law enforcement in the minutes leading up to the shooting.
Security and communication lapses between the Secret Service and local law enforcement are to blame for not sooner thwarting the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a bipartisan interim Senate report released on Sept. 25.
The report was jointly released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations—as the Secret Service faces continued scrutiny after two attempted assassinations of the GOP presidential nominee.
“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,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said in a statement announcing the report’s release.
One of the 12 findings in the report was that the Secret Service was informed of a suspicious individual with a rangefinder around the warehouse. The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, ended up on the roof about 27 minutes before the shooting.
A local law enforcement officer, hoisted to the roof line by a colleague, encountered Crooks but ducked back down after Crooks pointed his gun at him, according to a Secret Service report about the incident that was released on Sept. 20.
The Secret Service security room was notified of this at 5:44 p.m., and the agency’s counter sniper team leader was notified a minute later, according to the report.
Soon after, the Secret Service looked for the individual.
The lead advance agent, site agent, and site counterpart told the committee they did not get the information until after Crooks fired shots.
Additionally, a local law enforcement officer notified fellow officers that Crooks was on a rooftop three minutes before the incident, according to the report.
That notification was passed on to the Secret Service about two minutes before the shooting.
The shooting began at 6:11 p.m., and Crooks was killed by the Secret Service almost immediately, according to the Secret Service.
Trump and three others were injured by the bullets, and one person died.
Secret Service agents jumped on Trump, who stooped down as the shots were fired, and stayed in a protective formation around him as they escorted him off the stage and into a car.
Communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement was “siloed,” and the service “did not ensure it could share information with local law enforcement partners in real-time,” according to the committee.
The earlier report released by the Secret Service also blames communication failures for not preventing the shooting.
In addition, according to the committee report, a Secret Service counter-sniper witnessed local law enforcement running toward the warehouse and did not notify Trump’s protective detail as that idea “did not cross [his] mind.”
The Secret Service report corroborates this finding, as Trump’s protective detail was “not apprised of how focused state and local law enforcement were in the minutes leading up to the attack on locating the suspicious subject.”
The rally was the first time counter-snipers were present for someone who was not the president, the vice president, or a candidate nominated by his or her party, according to the report.
Trump did not become the GOP presidential nominee until a couple of days later at the Republican National Convention.
The counter-snipers were there because of “credible intelligence” of a threat, according to the report.
Additional resources that Trump’s Secret Service detail requested, such as more counter unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) personnel and equipment, were denied, advance agents told the committee, saying this would have been helpful.
The C-UAS system did not work until 4:33 p.m., which was after Crooks flew his drone near the rally site.
Secret Service advance agents denied responsibility for the planning and security failures, according to the report, and told the committee the agency and local law enforcement planned together but had different views on who in the service made the final decisions.
The agents interviewed by the committee didn’t know who was in charge of the security perimeter, according to the report.
The agents told the committee that local and state law enforcement was in charge of security coverage of the warehouse since it was part of the perimeter. A local law enforcement officer told the committee that local law enforcement did not have the “manpower” to secure the warehouse.
The Secret Service lead advance agent, counter-sniper team leader, and site counterpart did not go into the warehouse, and no Secret Service advance agent “shared planning documents with state or local law enforcement, or requested state or local operational plans—and those plans reveal no post-standers or patrol assigned to cover the [warehouse] or roof,” according to the report.
Furthermore, a Secret Service counter-sniper team had an obstructed view of the rooftop, according to the committee.The committee made recommendations such as that Congress require the Secret Service “to identify defined roles and responsibilities for [Secret Service] personnel responsible for advance planning of any protective event.”
This includes designating one person responsible for all logistics planning.
Also, communications between the Secret Service and federal, state, and local law enforcement should be “properly executed” and records should be maintained.
Finally, the committee and subcommittee said they would continue to investigate the incident.
“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,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said in the report announcement.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi said that the agency has reviewed the report, which he said is aligned with its report, and is working with Congress to address the findings.
The House unanimously passed a bill on Sept. 20 to give major presidential candidates presidential-level Secret Service protection.
The bill is pending in the Senate.