Multiple Secret Service fail A shooter before former President Donald Trump’s July rally open fire The incidents “were foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events that day leading up to the assassination attempt,” according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.
It’s almost the same as the institution’s own internal investigation As well as an ongoing bipartisan House investigation, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s interim report found multiple failures at nearly every level before Penn Butler shootingincluding planning, communications, security and resource allocation.
“The consequences of these failures are dire,” said Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland Caucus.
Investigators found there was no clear chain of command between the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan to cover the building where the gunman climbed to fire. Officials were operating on multiple separate radio channels, resulting in communications outages and an inexperienced drone operator being stranded on a helpline because his equipment was not working properly.
Peters said communication among security officials is a “multi-step game of telephone.”
The report found that the Secret Service was notified about a person on the roof of the building about two minutes before the shooting. Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, firing eight rounds in Trump’s direction, less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. 2024 Republican presidential candidate Trump Being hit in the ear by a bullet or bullet fragments During the assassination attempt, one rally participant was killed and two others injured before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service countersniper.
The report found that about 22 seconds before Crooks fired, a local official sent a radio alert that there were armed men inside the building. But that information was not communicated to key Secret Service personnel interviewed by Senate investigators.
The team also interviewed a Secret Service countersniper who reported seeing police officers running toward the building where the shooter was with their guns drawn, but the person said they did not believe anyone was being called to remove Trump from office.
Days before the Senate report was released, the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the agency’s main conclusions, which have not yet been finalized. Report A bipartisan House task force will hold a hearing Thursday to investigate the shooting. A House panel is still investigating second assassination attempt Earlier this month, Secret Service agents arrested an armed man hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club.
Each investigation has uncovered new details about a severe breakdown in the former president’s security, and lawmakers say they want to know more as they try to prevent it from happening again.
“This is the result of multiple human errors by the Secret Service,” said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the panel’s Republican leader.
The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protective incident, including designating a person responsible for approving all security plans. Investigators found that many of those responsible denied responsibility for planning or safety failures and shied away from responsibility.
The advance agent interviewed by the committee stated that “planning and safety decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval,” the report said.
Communication with local authorities is also poor. Two days earlier, local law enforcement had expressed concerns about security coverage at the building where the shooter was staying, telling Secret Service agents as they walked by that they did not have enough manpower to cordon off the building. Secret Service agents later gave investigators conflicting accounts of who was responsible for the security coverage, the report said.
An internal Secret Service review released last week also detailed multiple communications failures, including a lack of clear guidance to local law enforcement and a failure to fix sight holes at the rally venue that left Trump vulnerable to sniper fire. “The complacency of some agents.
“This was a failure by the U.S. Secret Service. It is important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failure on July 13 and use the lessons learned to ensure we do not have a similar failure happen again,” said Ronald Reagan Jr., the agency’s acting director. Luo said after the report was released.
In addition to better defining incident responsibilities, the senators also recommended that the agency overhaul its communications operations during protective incidents and improve intelligence sharing. They also recommended that Congress evaluate whether more resources are needed.
Both Democrats and Republicans have Divided over whether to give Secret Service more money after its failure. Spending bills expected to pass by the end of the month include Additional $231 million But many Republicans say internal reforms to the agency are needed first.
“This is a simple and clear management issue,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the top Republican on the Homeland Security panel’s investigations subcommittee.
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