Secret Service opens disciplinary probe into agents responsible for securing Trump’s July 13 rally

The Secret Service has launched a disciplinary investigation into actions and decision-making of its agents involved in securing the July 13 rally where former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated.

Ronald Rowe, the Secret Service’s acting director, told Congress Tuesday 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.

Mr. Rowe’s testimony to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Judiciary committees comes a week after he was appointed to temporarily lead the Secret Service. Kimberly Cheatle, the former director, resigned last week a day after she testified in the House, dodging questions and drawing bipartisan condemnation and calls for her to resign.

“I regret that information was not passed to Congress and the public sooner with greater frequency,” Mr. Rowe said, pledging his “full support” to the various investigations examining the assassination attempt.

Mr. Rowe said he’s not waiting for the results of the probes to assess where the Secret Service failed. He said he has already identified security gaps on July 13 and implemented “corrective actions.”

Unlike his predecessor, Mr. Rowe visited the site of the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. He said he climbed onto the roof of the building where the would-be assassin fired and laid in the same position as the shooter to understand his view of Mr. Trump.

“What I saw made me ashamed,” he said. “I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”

Mr. Rowe declined to say whether the agents in charge of security planning for the Butler rally have been pulled off further duties pending the disciplinary review, but he did confirm the team planning security for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month is a separate set of agents from headquarters in Washington.

“Our Pittsburgh field office staff, they are wearing this harder than anybody right now in the Secret Service,” he said. “They feel completely demoralized.”

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters, Michigan Democrat, said his panel wants to interview the Secret Service agents responsible for securing the event.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said if such security failures occurred in the military, many people would have been axed.

“Somebody’s got to be fired,” he said. “Nothing is going to change until somebody loses their job.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, expressed dismay that “a 20-year-old introverted college student outsmarted one of the most sophisticated American law enforcement agencies.”

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the Homeland Security panel, said he was encouraged to hear the Secret Service opened a disciplinary review, calling the assassination attempt “a monumental failure.”

“Local law enforcement told my staff that they specifically flagged the vulnerability of the building to the Secret Service and were told that it would be taken care of,” he said.

Later in the hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, asked Mr. Rowe who was the lead site agent for the event who made the decision to leave the building the shooter fired from outside the security perimeter — and whether that person was fired.

Mr. Rowe declined to name the agent, adding that the person was not let go and was cooperating with the disciplinary investigation.

“This person is operational,” Mr. Rowe said, noting the agent is still involved in investigations and protected visits.

The exchange got testy as Mr. Hawley pressed Mr. Rowe further on the decision to let the agent remain on staff.

“You’re zeroing in on one particular agent,” Mr. Rowe said. “I want to be neutral and make sure that we get to the bottom of it and interview everybody in order to determine if there was more than one person who perhaps exercised bad judgment.”

Mr. Hawley said he was trying to find somebody accountable for the assassination attempt and asked Mr. Rowe about other agents who may have failed in their roles and why they still had their jobs.

“What more do you need to know?” the senator asked.

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.”