The Secret Service has temporarily removed some personnel from security duties as the agency investigates their potential involvement in security failures that occurred at the July 13 rally where former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, according to reports.
Secret Service leaders placed on administrative leave several members of the Pittsburgh Field Office, which led security planning for the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, RealClearPolitics first reported.
The Butler rally was held in an outdoor fairgrounds space. A gunman accessed the roof of a nearby building, which the Secret Service did not include in the official security perimeter, and shot at Mr. Trump. Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired at least eight rounds. One rallygoer died, Mr. Trump’s ear was grazed and two other people were injured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Secret Service’s placing agents on leave “is the agency’s first step toward accountability, but it comes 41 days after the attempt on President Trump’s life — and it’s nowhere near enough.”
“Since the Secret Service refuses to recognize reality and will not be transparent, the House’s Bipartisan Task Force will continue to aggressively and thoroughly investigate the shocking security failures, get answers, and bring accountability,” the Louisiana Republican said in a statement.
Fox News reported on Friday that one member of Mr. Trump’s protective team was placed on leave, along with four members of the Pittsburgh Field Office, including the special agent in charge.
CNN reported the same number but had a slightly different account, saying that five Secret Service personnel “have been reassigned to administrative duties and ordered to work from home.”
That is not the same as administrative leave, which, according to the federal government Office of Personnel Management’s definition, “is an administratively authorized absence from duty without loss of pay or charge to leave.”
The Secret Service would not confirm the reports or clear up the discrepancies, but the agency said in a statement that it “is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel” related to the Butler rally and assassination attempt on Mr. Trump.
“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,” said Anthony Guglielmi, Secret Service chief of communications.
“The U.S. Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action,” he said. “Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further.”
Ronald Rowe, the Secret Service’s acting director, told Congress last month that the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility is reviewing personnel decisions made in the lead-up to and on the day of the attack.
“If this investigation reveals that Secret Service employees violated agency protocols, those employees will be held responsible to our disciplinary process,” he said in testimony on July 30 before two Senate committees.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, pressed Mr. Rowe in the hearing on why the Secret Service had yet to fire anyone involved in securing the Butler rally.
Mr. Rowe committed to holding people accountable after the disciplinary review but said he wouldn’t rush to judgment because he doesn’t want agents to be “unfairly persecuted.”
On Friday, Mr. Hawley said the news that the Secret Service had placed personnel on administrative leave is “long overdue.”
“I called for this weeks ago,” he posted on X. “The delay is inexplicable — and inexcusable.”
Later Friday, Mr. Hawley sent a letter to Mr. Rowe about an “apparent contradiction” in his previous testimony claiming the Secret Service did not deny any requests for added security at the Butler rally.
“If you’re talking about Butler, Pennsylvania, all assets requested were approved,” Mr. Rowe said at the hearing when questioned about reports that requests from Mr. Trump’s protective team for additional assets were repeatedly denied.
That testimony “did not tell the full story,” Mr. Hawley wrote in the Friday letter.
A whistleblower with knowledge of Secret Service planning “alleges that officials at Secret Service headquarters encouraged agents in charge of the trip not to request any additional security assets in its formal manpower request — effectively denying these assets through informal means,” he said.
Officials from the Secret Service’s Office of Protective Operations-Manpower, which issues final approval on requests for additional personnel and security assets, “preemptively informed the Pittsburgh field office that the Butler rally was not going to receive additional security resources because Trump is a former president and not the incumbent President or Vice President,” Mr. Hawley said of the whistleblower’s account.
Mr. Hawley asked Mr. Rowe a series of questions about the allegation, including what security assets were left out of the official manpower request for the Butler rally at the agency leadership’s urging and who in the office that provides personnel approvals preemptively turned down additional resources through informal channels.
“Your actions to place some field agents on leave are not enough,” he said. “These serious allegations suggest that the failures to protect the former president extended to top officials at the agency.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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