Critical assessment by independent body slams Secret Service, advocates for leadership change following Trump assault incident
In one of the harshest critiques of the agency to date, the review board accused the Secret Service of embracing a "do more with less" mentality and the absence of "critical thinking" among its agents, leading up to and during the Butler gathering where Trump was attacked and a crowd participant was tragically killed.
"The Secret Service has transformed into a bureaucratic, comfortable, and stationary entity despite the surge in risks and the advancement of technology," the panel stated in its report, published on Wednesday.
The panel, presided over by Mark Filip, former deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush; Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security secretary under President Barack Obama; and others, suggested replacing the current leadership with external individuals capable of modifying the Secret Service's culture, specifically the "existing sense of complacency within the Service."
"Many of the issues highlighted in this report, particularly the 'deeper concerns,' are primarily due to the Service's culture. A leadership overhaul, introducing fresh perspectives, will contribute to resolving these concerns," the panel stated.
The agency is currently headed by acting Director Ronald Rowe, who, despite not being explicitly named in the leadership change recommendation, comes from within the organization and was appointed following Director Kimberly Cheatle's resignation following the near-assassination.
The report heavily criticized the agency for insufficiently securing the Butler rally location, including by not setting up line-of-sight barriers, not securing the buildings the shooter accessed, not responding to reports of the shooter as a potential threat over an hour before Trump was attacked, and numerous other oversights from both the agency and local law enforcement.
These shortcomings, according to the panel, were a consequence of the lack of critical thinking among the Secret Service personnel responsible for security that day.
The panel also proposed reducing some of the agency's non-security responsibilities, such as its investigative work, which centres on financial crimes the agency was established to combat.
"The Panel harbors severe doubt that many of the Service’s non-protective (investigative) tasks significantly enhance the Service’s protective capacity and is concerned that they may considerably distract from it," the report stated.
The report also noted the Secret Service's failure to effectively boost Trump's security after receiving intelligence about an assassination threat from a "foreign state actor" against the former president, as well as his high-profile status as a previous president and the current Republican frontrunner for the 2024 election. CNN had previously reported on a plot by Iran to assassinate Trump in the weeks preceding the attempted assassination of the former president at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July.
Additional agency faults highlighted in the report included a lack of experience among those in charge of the rally site security.
"The site agent assigned by the Trump detail to work with the Pittsburgh field office to conduct site advance work and rally security planning for the Butler rally graduated from the Service’s academy in 2020, had only been on the Trump detail since 2023, and had a limited history of site advance work or rally security planning, particularly at the intensity level of the July 13 Butler rally," the panel noted.
The report also addressed communication breakdowns between the Secret Service and local law enforcement during the Butler rally, who reported the shooter's activities and movements throughout the day, including observing the stage with a range finder.
The panel acknowledged that the Secret Service was working on establishing a more integrated communications system, but noted that the federal government had been aware of and had implemented solutions for these issues, which were recognized in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.
Despite praising the agents for their actions in protecting Trump after he was attacked and quickly neutralizing the shooter, the report concluded that "bravery and selflessness alone, regardless of their nobility, are inadequate to fulfil the Secret Service’s no-failure protective mission."
The Secret Service's focus on managing with fewer resources and the perceived lack of critical thinking among its agents were brought up as major concerns in the aftermath of the Butler gathering where Trump was attacked. The panel suggested that addressing the Service's culture, specifically combating complacency, could help resolve these issues.
The report also criticized the Secret Service for failing to sufficiently secure the rally location, including insufficient barrier setup and inadequate response to potential threat reports, which were attributed to the lack of critical thinking among personnel responsible for security that day.
