Secret Service identifies failures that preceded Trump assassination attempt at July campaign rally

Washington — A Secret Service assessment of the failures that led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally on July 13 found that there were multiple communications issues with law enforcement at the site, the agency’s interim leader said Friday.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe detailed to reporters the findings of the agency’s “mission assurance review,” which he said is nearing its end.

“We need a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our protective operations,” he said. “The threat level is evolving and requires this paradigm shift.”

Rowe clarified this shift involves looking at the agency “holistically.”

The July 13 Trump shooting

The acting Secret Service chief detailed the timeline leading up to when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounding Trump and two others and killing one attendee. Crooks began shooting just after 6:11 p.m. local time on July 13. Rowe said that one minute before, the Secret Service’s security room called a countersniper response agent to report an individual on the roof of the building where Crooks was stationed, called the AGR building. That “vital piece of information was not relayed over the Secret Service radio network,” the acting director said.

Rowe said that also at 6:10 p.m., local police confronted Crooks on the rooftop, and a site agent called a deputy to learn what was going on. During that call, Rowe said the shots began ringing out.

The Secret Service didn’t provide clear guidance or direction to local and state law enforcement partners, who were on hand to assist the agency at the rally, he said. Rowe also said there were “communications deficiencies” with officers at the site, including an “over reliance” on mobile devices that led to information being siloed.

While there were discussions before the rally about how the AGR building and a nearby property were going to be secured, Rowe said there should have been more clear direction about what the Secret Service needed. He noted that on the day of the rally, there were issues identified with respect to the line-of-sight to Trump that were not brought to the attention of supervisors.

“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,” he said. 

Rowe said the internal review found “deficiencies” in the advance planning and implementation by Secret Service employees, who he said will be held accountable.

A Secret Service sniper shot and killed the Crooks, 20, after he opened fire. The assassination attempt sparked immense criticism of the Secret Service and questions about how Crooks was able to gain access to the rooftop so close to where Trump was speaking. The Secret Service director at the time of the shooting, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned in its wake, and Rowe was installed as its acting leader. A bipartisan congressional task force and the FBI are also investigating the shooting.

A second apparent assassination attempt

Scrutiny of the former president’s protection intensified again this week after law enforcement arrested Ryan Wesley Routh after he was allegedly waiting with a high-powered rifle in the tree line of Trump’s South Florida golf course on Sunday. Officials said the suspect had an AK-47-style rifle and was between 300 to 500 yards from Trump, who was golfing, when a Secret Service agent spotted the gun and opened fire.

Officials said they found the rifle, a scope, two backpacks with ceramic tile and a GoPro camera in the bushes outside of the golf course. An FBI affidavit said that data obtained from Routh’s cellphone provider showed his phone was in the area along the tree line at Trump International Golf Course for roughly 12 hours before he was spotted.

The Secret Service said the suspect didn’t have a line of sight to Trump and was several holes ahead of the former president.

Law enforcement are treating the incident as an attempted assassination of Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. Rowe on Friday praised the agent who identified the suspect with a long gun and took “swift action” to mitigate the threat.

“No shots were fired at the former president. The former president wasn’t exposed to where he was on the golf course,” he said. “The procedures work, the redundancies work, so that high level of protection is working.”

In the wake of the latest incident, the House unanimously voted to boost Secret Service protection for all major presidential and vice presidential candidates to be on par with the sitting president, a step that Rowe said the Secret Service has already implemented since July 13. Congress is also debating whether to increase funding for the Secret Service as part of legislation funding the government ahead of an Oct. 1 deadline. Rowe said the Secret Service’s resources are being stretched thin by the heightened protection levels, and said the agency was having “productive” conversations with lawmakers about a funding boost.

As for Trump’s Secret Service protection, Rowe said he has the “highest levels.”

“We are not capitalizing on a crisis,” he said. “We are showing the math. We have finite resources, and we are stretching those resources to their maximum right now.”

The Biden administration asked Congress last month for special permission to increase Secret Service funding in the coming weeks, multiple congressional and administration sources told CBS News.