() A newly released Senate report found the Secret Service made a “cascade of preventable failures” at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pa., where a gunman opened fire July 13, 2024.
Trump’s ear was grazed, a bystander was killed and others were injured. The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ findings were released Sunday, which marked one year since the assassination attempt. It found the Secret Service made a “cascade of preventable failures” that day, but offered little insight into Crooks’ motivations.
The committee noted a “disturbing pattern of communication failures and negligence,” and called the incident one of the worst failures in Secret Service history.
At the center of the report is one agent who received a critical warning 25 minutes before the shooting but reportedly never passed it on.
The report said Trump’s security detail made 10 separate requests for extra support ahead of the rally, but all of them were either denied or never acted on. Other claims included agents dismissing security requests, mishandling credible intel and putting inexperienced agents in key positions.
Instead of having one unified command post with representatives from every agency providing security in the same room, there were two command posts at the rally. One investigation described a “chaotic mixture” of radio, cellphone, text and email used to communicate that day.
The Secret Service recently suspended six agents without pay following the assassination attempt. Two of the agents have appealed their suspensions which are scheduled to begin “shortly,” a source with knowledge of the matter told .
The Senate report calls for harsher handling of the agents: “Those who were disciplined received penalties far too weak to match the severity [of] the failures.”
Secret Service director Sean Curran said his agency will continue to cooperate with the committee.
“We are committed to implementing all recommendations and have already made substantial progress on several of them,” Curran said in a statement. “Following the events of July 13, the Secret Service took a serious look at our operations and implemented substantive reforms.”
Since the attack, the Secret Service said it has overhauled communications, launched a new airspace security division and brought in hundreds of new agents.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
