An independent investigation into the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump has warned that further such episodes will occur unless the Secret Service undergoes “fundamental reform”.
In a sometimes scathing 51-page report, a panel commissioned by the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, lambasted the agency for a spate of failings, including a “lack of critical thinking”, and said it had not engaged in sufficient “self-reflection” over the episode.
It also criticised agents for failing to communicate effectively with local and state law enforcement officers at the site of a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on 13 July, when a lone gunman opened fire from a nearby roof.
Trump was wounded after a bullet grazed his ear and one rally-goer, Corey Comperatore, was killed before the 20-year-old shooter was shot dead by a Secret Service agent.
The report noted that Comperatore was the first person ever to be killed in a Secret Service perimeter zone by a person trying to assassinate someone under the agency’s protection.
Mayorkas commissioned a four-member team of eminent national and state law enforcement officials to investigate amid a storm of criticism over the incident, which prompted the resignation of the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, following a disastrous performance at a congressional hearing.
The report was commissioned before a second apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his golf club in Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 September, which was foiled after a Secret Service agent spotted the barrel of a gun protruding from bushes as the former president played golf. The gunman, Ryan Routh, was subsequently arrested and has been charged with trying to kill Trump.
In a chilling passage, the authors conclude that the first attempt was not a one-off.
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” they write. “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
The report identifies “specific failures and breakdowns” on the day, including a failure to encounter Crooks despite the fact that several law enforcement officers had become aware of him. It also found that Trump’s Secret Service detail had not been told of the gunman’s presence at the site, even though three agents knew about it.
By the time they came close to apprehending him, more than an hour and a half after a local law enforcement officer had first noticed him entering the car park of a cordoned-off building, Trump was already speaking on stage.
Beyond operational failures on the day lay “deeper concerns”, the report said. It added: “Taken together, these issues reveal deep flaws in the Secret Service, including some that appear to be systemic or cultural.”
The agency was guilty of a formulaic approach to assessing how much protection was needed rather than on the basis of specific threats faced by individuals.
The report praised the quick actions of Secret Service agents in diving to protect Trump after shots had been fired. But it added: “Bravery and selflessness alone, no matter how honourable, are insufficient to discharge the Secret Service’s no-fail protective mission.”
The report’s authors included Janet Napolitano, a former homeland security secretary in Barack Obama’s presidency.