The summary of an internal investigation determined that the agency did not adequately prepare its local partners for their duties at the event in Butler, Pa., in July.
Listen to this article · 6:16 min Learn more
- Share full article
- 0
VideotranscriptBackbars0:00/1:44-0:00
transcript
Report Details Secret Service Failures Before Trump Assassination Attempt
The Secret Service’s internal review revealed that they did not adequately prepare its local partners for the July 13 event that led to former President Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.
Good afternoon, everyone. After reviewing the planning event details, and coordination with partner agencies regarding the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13, our mission assurance review is nearing its completion. As I’ve said, this was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. 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. The Secret Service did not give clear guidance or direction to our local law enforcement partners. There were communication deficiencies between law enforcement personnel at the site. With respect to diligence, line of sight issues were acknowledged, but not properly mitigated. Issues were encountered the day of the visit with respect to line of sight concerns, but they were not escalated to supervisors. With respect to accountability, The mission assurance review has identified deficiencies in the advanced planning and its implementation by Secret Service personnel. These employees will be held accountable. And this agency has among the most robust table of penalties in the entirety of the federal government. And I’ve directed that the Secret Service embark on a significant paradigm shift that will redefine how we conduct protective operations. What occurred on Sunday demonstrates that the threat environment in which the Secret Service operates is tremendous and under constant threat. And we’ve been in this heightened and increasingly dynamic threat environment since July 13.
The Secret Service’s internal review revealed that they did not adequately prepare its local partners for the July 13 event that led to former President Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.Credit
A Secret Service internal review of the failures that led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa., found that agents did not have the necessary discussions about how a complex of warehouses surrounding the site should be protected.
The most glaring of the agency’s security lapses on that day centers on how an armed 20-year-old was able to climb onto a roof of one of the warehouses, giving him a clear line of sight to Mr. Trump. Other failures noted in the agency’s summary include the inability of the Secret Service to talk with its local partners over radios and technical challenges that prevented agents from launching drone detection on the day of the rally.
The Secret Service’s findings were released in a brief summary of its monthslong inquiry on Friday. The complete report is not yet finished.
The abbreviated findings left some major questions unanswered, including: Who in the Secret Service was responsible for ensuring that the warehouses were properly protected on the day of the event? And why didn’t any agents in the agency’s communications hub realize that they were not hearing from local police radios in the hours they were there before Mr. Trump took the podium?
“It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13 and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another mission failure like this again,” the agency’s acting director, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., said in a statement before a news conference on Friday afternoon.
Read the Summary of the Secret Service’s Internal Review
The agency released a brief summary of its monthslong inquiry into the failures leading to the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump in July. The complete report is not yet finished.
Read Document 5 pages
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Source: nytimes.com
