The Secret Service’s internal investigation of the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump found “complacency” among some of its employees who conducted the advance security planning for the July 13 rally that led to protocol breaches.
Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe said in a news conference Friday that those employees will be disciplined, but he declined to go into details.
“While some members of the advance team were very diligent, there was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach of security protocols with respect to accountability,” he said.
“The mission assurance review has identified deficiencies in the advanced planning and its implementation by Secret Service personnel,” he said. “These employees will be held accountable, and this agency has among the most robust table of penalties in the entirety of the federal government.”
He said employees acknowledged “line of sight issues” on the morning of the rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, but did not raise concerns with supervisors.
The internal investigation “is nearing its completion,” Mr. Rowe said, and the agency has begun implementing changes because of its findings.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13 and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” Mr. Rowe said.
The sharpened criticism of the agency intensified after a second attempt on Mr. Trump’s life. On Sept. 15 at Mr. Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, a would-be assassin perched in the bushes on the perimeter of the golf club for 12 hours with an SKS-style rifle, the FBI said.
Ryan Routh was spotted and stopped by a Secret Service agent before firing a shot. He is in custody and is charged with two gun crimes.
On Friday, the House passed a bill to order presidential-level protection for major party presidential and vice presidential candidates. The bill passed unanimously on a 405-0 vote, though Mr. Rowe has insisted that Mr. Trump already has the highest level of security.
“Let the American people decide who will be president — not an assassin and not an assassin’s bullet,” said Rep. Michael Lawler, New York Republican and lead sponsor of the bill.
The Secret Service Office of Professional Responsibility led the internal review of the July 13 incident and released a five-page summary of its initial findings. In the coming weeks, a full report will provide recommendations for agency leadership.
SEE ALSO: House votes to give top security for presidential, vice presidential candidates
Concerning the rally advance team in Butler County, Mr. Rowe said the Secret Service had primary responsibility for building the security site plan but “did not give clear guidance or direction to our local law enforcement partners.”
The summary report said interviews of Secret Service and partnering agencies’ personnel revealed “discrepancies” in their understanding of the site plan’s execution.
“Communication deficiencies” included a decision to have the Secret Service and local law enforcement running separate command centers and “an over-reliance on mobile devices, resulting in information being siloed.”
The Secret Service used a phone in a security room to call one of its countersnipers at 6:10 p.m. and report a person on the roof of the AGR International building adjacent to the rally site at the Butler Farm Show grounds.
“That vital piece of information was not relayed over the Secret Service radio network,” Mr. Rowe said.
The person on the roof, Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired eight rounds at 6:11 p.m. before a Secret Service countersniper killed him. Mr. Rowe said the Secret Service reviewed body camera footage that showed the countersniper shot Crooks 12 seconds after he fired the first round.
The summary report said the different radio frequencies law enforcement used on July 13 “were not conducive for quickly sharing real-time information” and that “multiple standard conduits of communication” were not in operation that day.
“The failure of personnel to broadcast via radio the description of the assailant, or vital information received from local law enforcement regarding a suspicious individual on the roof of the AGR complex, to all federal personnel at the Butler site inhibited the collective awareness of all Secret Service personnel,” the report said.
That kept Mr. Trump’s Secret Service protective detail in the dark about local law enforcement’s efforts to locate Crooks, who had been identified as suspicious before he was spotted on the roof. The report acknowledged that the protective detail, had it received radio transmissions about a suspicious person, could have determined whether to move Mr. Trump during the search.
Another issue was that the Secret Service advance team was not initially aware of all the local law enforcement entities brought in to help its primary local partner.
The report did not name the specific law enforcement entities but said one brought in for support, unbeknown to the leadership of Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office and agents on the advance team, was assigned to provide tactical coverage on the second floor of the AGR building and “had no prior contact with Secret Service personnel before the rally.”
“Multiple law enforcement entities involved in securing the rally questioned the efficacy of that local sniper team’s positioning in the AGR building, yet there was no follow-up discussion about modifying their position,” the report said. “There was also no discussion with Secret Service advance personnel about positioning that team atop the AGR roof. Local sniper support were apparently not opposed to that location.”
Mr. Rowe said, “There was a discussion about how the roof was going to be secured,” but he did not disclose who was party to that discussion.
“I think that was a failure to challenge our assumptions, the assumption that local police were going to have more of a presence in that AGR building,” Mr. Rowe said. “And so there was an assumption that they had it covered. But there clearly was not that follow-up to make sure.”
Mr. Rowe’s claim is different from that of a local law enforcement whistleblower, who told a group of House Republicans investigating the assassination attempt that the Secret Service said it would cover the rooftop.
The Secret Service report said its personnel lacked detailed knowledge of where local partners would be stationed in and around the AGR complex and “the specific footprint of resources that would buttress the secure area of the venue” from that complex.
Mr. Rowe repeatedly promised that the Secret Service would undergo a “paradigm shift” in providing protective operations amid an “increasingly dynamic threat environment.”
“This reality has necessitated that we significantly increase our protective footprint, and we’ve already begun to do so following the events of July 13,” he said.
“Going forward, the paradigm shift will be a driving force to move the Secret Service from a state of reaction to a state of readiness,” Mr. Rowe said. “And the vision is for the Secret Service to be more agile, with the ability to escalate protection to the highest levels for numerous protectees for undetermined periods of time.”
Mr. Rowe said the paradigm shift would include enhanced communications, technology and personnel needed to support immediate and future protective needs.
He is creating an applied research-and-development section of the agency to field new technologies and leverage the research of other government agencies.
The Secret Service is looking to hire more personnel because its agents “have been in a state of hypervigilance following July 13,” and the threat landscape is only increasing, Mr. Rowe said.
“We are certainly working our people hard,” he said. “This cannot be about working our people harder.”
Mr. Rowe is talking to Congress about funding for new technology and hiring more personnel but declined to specify how much money the agency has requested because those conversations are continuing.
He said the agency is “burning through a lot of assets and resources,” especially after enhancing security for Mr. Trump, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and their running mates since July 13.
The Secret Service will have hired more than 400 special agents when the fiscal year closes at the end of the month, and its overall net workforce increase will be in the hundreds, Mr. Rowe said.
Applications for Secret Service employment “are at an all-time high,” he said. Mr. Rowe wants to hire up to a point where the Secret Service will not need to rely on the Department of Homeland Security to deploy personnel from other departments for assistance outside special national security events, such as the presidential inauguration.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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