‘Operational Failure’: Secret Service Suspended Six Agents After Trump Assassination Attempt

Six Secret Service agents were suspended without pay due to security failures during the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, nearly a year ago.  

Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn told CBS News on Wednesday that the suspensions ranged from 10 to 42 days, and the personnel were placed on restricted duty with reduced responsibilities upon their return to work. Quinn’s revelation came just days before the one-year anniversary of the July 13 Butler attack, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired off eight rounds at Trump, striking him in the ear, killing one rallygoer, and injuring two others. 

“We aren’t going to fire our way out of this,” Quinn said. “We’re going to focus on the root cause and fix the deficiencies that put us in that situation.” 

Quinn said that the department was “laser-focused” on addressing the problems that left Trump, rallygoers, and the general public vulnerable during the assassination attempt. 

“Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler,” he said. “Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again and executing our strategic plan to increase technology, to improve communications, to make sure our personnel are well-trained, equipped and deployed.”

He stated that the agency was now utilizing mobile command posts to maintain radio contact with local law enforcement and had begun using new, military-grade drones. At Butler, no drones were used, and Crooks was able to climb onto a rooftop outside of the security perimeter with a rifle about 150 yards away from the stage where Trump was speaking.

ABC News reported that those disciplined ranged from agents at the supervisory level to the line agent level, and the suspensions had been served in “recent months.”

Reports from both the House and Senate concluded that the attack was preventable, finding that the Secret Service was woefully unprepared. 

The Senate report found that Crooks was also able to “fly a drone 200 yards from the site, use a rangefinder capable of gauging the distance to the former president less than an hour before he began speaking, and bring two explosive devices within proximity of the site of the rally.” 

The report detailed that local law enforcement had warned the Secret Service about the potential threat posed by the roof was a possible security vulnerability, but did not allocate resources to secure it. 

Furthermore, the Secret Service was informed that Crooks was on the roof of the building at least two minutes before he started shooting, yet Trump was not moved from the stage. Prior to that, they had known that a suspicious person was hanging around the same building for at least 27 minutes before the shooting. 

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her position about 10 days after the attack, shortly after she was grilled by lawmakers about the security failures and faced calls from both Democrats and Republicans to step down.