Multiple Secret Service employees are being placed on administrative leave after the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump during a campaign rally last month, according to multiple reports.
A member of Trump’s security detail and personnel from the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office who helped coordinate the security at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa. have been told to work on administrative duties from home, CNN and Fox News reported.
The security failures leading up to the attempt on Trump’s life are one of the most significant law-enforcement failures in American history and remain the subject of multiple ongoing investigations. Acting Secret Service chief Ron Rowe admitted the assassination attempt was an indefensible failure when he testified before the Senate two weeks after the incident took place.
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., managed to climb up a nearby rooftop and fire eight shots at Trump and his supporters at the campaign rally, wounding Trump’s right ear and killing former fire chief Corey Comperatore. Two other victims, Marine veteran David Dutch and retiree James Copenhaver were also wounded by Crooks’s gun shots.
Text messages disclosed by Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) indicate law enforcement identified Crooks more than 90 minutes before he climbed onto the rooftop of an American Glass Research (AGR) building and carried out the shooting. Secret Service did not know Crooks had a weapon on the rooftop until he fired the shots, Rowe admitted, while largely blaming local law enforcement for the communication breakdown that occurred beforehand.
But, audio released by the Wall Street Journal shows local officers were frustrated the Secret Service personnel failed to secure the rooftop of the AGR building after signaling that they had the area covered. Right before Crooks fired, a local officer climbed up to the rooftop to confront Crooks, but he stood down once Crooks pointed his rife at him.
Multiple whistleblowers have come forward to Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) about the alleged Secret Services lapses surrounding the Trump rally. The latest whistleblower alleges that Secret Service officials told agents not to request more personnel for the Trump rally, and they would be denied if they did.
The FBI is leading the investigation into how Crooks planned the attack. He visited the site of Trump’s rally three times, with the first trip taking place a week before the rally. On the day of Trump’s rally, Crooks went to the location for 70 minutes in the morning, and departed the area. He returned during the afternoon and stayed there until a Secret Service sniper killed him seconds after he fired the shots.
Roughly two hours before Trump got on stage, Crooks flew a drone around the perimeter of the rally for 11 minutes, the FBI estimates. The Secret Service was unable to fly its drones across the site because of poor phone service, and the agency turned down an offer from local law enforcement to fly a drone overhead, a decision Rowe expressed regret for. Explosives were also found in Crooks’s car after the shooting.
Thus far, the FBI has not established a motive for Crooks’s attack. He is considered to be a loner who acted alone. Leading up to the attack, Crooks fixated on public figures and researched the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A gun-hobbyist, Crooks attended a local gun range dozens of times for almost a year prior to the assassination attempt, sign-in records show.
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi told National Review in a statement. “The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”
House lawmakers quickly formed a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempt on Trump’s life following hearings with former Secret Service director Kim Cheatle and FBI director Christopher Wray. Cheatle resigned from her post in disgrace after bipartisan scrutiny for refusing to answer basic questions when she appeared before the House Oversight Committee.
“There must be accountability at the Secret Service for its historic failures that led to the attempted assassination of President Trump. Holding negligent employees accountable is the first step. I look forward to the Task Force’s findings of its investigation. We must ensure the Secret Service does not fail again,” Oversight chairman James Comer said in response to the news that agents had been placed on leave.
