‘There was complacency’: Secret Service head vows accountability for ‘failure’ leading to Trump assassination attempt in Butler

Benjamin Kail / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WASHINGTON — The acting chief of the U.S. Secret Service vowed Friday to hold agents accountable for “complacency” and failures “we’re not proud of” that allowed a 20-year-old gunman to open fire at a Butler County rally for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on July 13.

Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. told reporters that members of the agency’s advance team and local authorities had expressed concerns about “line of sight issues” and the complex of buildings from where Thomas Matthew Crooks ultimately shot from a rooftop into the rally, wounding Trump and two others, and killing former firefighter Corey Comperatore.

Those line of sight concerns “were not escalated to supervisors,” Mr. Rowe said, amounting to “complacency … that led to a breach of protocols.”

“These employees will be held accountable,” he said, declining to provide details on the personnel involved but noting the agency has some of the most “robust penalties” in the federal government.

The news conference came less than a week after a second apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course, and as lawmakers expand their investigative efforts and press for greater resources for the Secret Service.

Candidates are consistently visiting battleground states like Pennsylvania with less than two months before Election Day, while the agency braces for extensive protective duties when the United Nations General Assembly gathers in New York later this month.

Mr. Rowe said the agency and its federal, state and local partners have operated under a “heightened and increasingly dynamic threat environment since July 13,” with a significantly increased protective footprint and additional technology and equipment, including ballistic glass at outdoor rallies.

“We’re at a pivotal moment in the history of the Secret Service and the history of our country,” he said. He called on the agency to “embark on a significant paradigm shift that will redefine how we conduct protective operations,” including increased use of technology, improved communications and situational awareness, and organizational changes as well.

A five-page report released by the Secret Service found fault with both federal and local law enforcement — particularly in communication breakdowns between agencies both before and during the rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds.

Though the failed response has been well-documented through congressional testimony, news media investigations and other public statements, the report marks the Secret Service's most formal attempt to catalog the errors of the day.

Some local officers did not know the Secret Service wasn’t receiving their radio transmissions. Even after Crooks was spotted, communications were sent “via mobile/cellular devices in staggered or fragmented fashion.”

“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 breakdown was especially problematic for Trump's protective detail, “who were not apprised of how focused state and local law enforcement were in the minutes leading up to the attack on locating the suspicious subject.” Had they known, the report says, they could have made the decision to relocate Trump while the search was in process.

The report raises more serious questions about why no law enforcement were stationed on the roof Crooks climbed onto before opening fire.

A local tactical team was stationed on the second floor of a building in the complex from which Crooks fired. Multiple law enforcement entities questioned the effectiveness of the team’s position, “yet there was no follow-up discussion” about changing it, the report says. And there was no discussion with the Secret Service about putting a team on the roof, even though snipers from local law enforcement agencies “were apparently not opposed to that location.”

The tactical team operating on the second floor of the building had no contact with Secret Service before the rally. That team was brought in by a local police department to help with the event, without Secret Service’s knowledge, the report says.

The report's executive summary does not identify specific individuals who may be to blame nor does it indicate whether any staff members have been disciplined, though The Associated Press has previously reported that at least five Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty. The director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned more than a week after the shooting, saying she took full responsibility for the lapse.

The Secret Service's investigation is one of numerous inquiries, including by Congress and a watchdog probe by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general office.

While Mr. Rowe has said that a lack of resources was not the root of security failures on July 13, the longer-term paradigm shift and the immediate higher levels of protection provided to Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidates Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this summer require additional resources.

The agency is in talks with Congress about funding and other needs, and Mr. Rowe said the agency is preparing to use the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center to create a guide and potentially a training curriculum for security and advance work that could assist state and local authorities.

“We are very much in tune with how our state and local partners support us and constantly looking to bolster those relationships,” he said.

Pressed about the line of sight issues and planning failures on July 13 that enabled Crooks to elude authorities and fire from the rooftop of the AGR building within range of Trump, Mr. Rowe said, “There should have been clearer direction” from the Secret Service “about what we needed done at the AGR building.”

“That was discussed at the advance, but there was a lack of follow-through,” and he pinned his agency for “not giving state and locals clearer direction.”

Mr. Rowe noted that despite concerns among primarily Republican lawmakers that Trump isn’t receiving adequate protection, the former president is receiving the “highest level” of protection on par with what President Joe Biden and Ms. Harris are receiving.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., the ranking member of the House task force investigating the assassination attempts, told reporters Wednesday that Mr. Biden ordered that level of protection for Trump after July 13.

Mr. Rowe said Trump had a counter-sniper team, a counter-assault team and a “jump team” in proximity that performed their duties successfully on Sunday after a 58-year-old gunman allegedly staked out the Florida golf course from surrounding shrubbery for almost 12 hours before being spotted.

Mr. Rowe credited the advance agent who swept the area: “a very young agent — his vigilance and his reaction is exactly how we trained.”

The agent spotted the barrel of the gunman’s AK-style rifle and made the “swift decision” to fire at him, Mr. Rowe said. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, fled and was later arrested; he now faces federal gun charges.

“No shot was fired at the former president,” Mr. Rowe added. “The procedures worked. The redundancies worked.”

He noted that the agency is still reviewing the incident and is open to potential operational changes for future golf or recreational outings by Trump or other protectees. Mr. Rowe said the goal is for candidates and protected government officials to “live their lives with some type of normalcy, but with us providing the highest level of protection.”

“It’s ultimately our responsibility to ensure that wherever our protectees go … we’re providing a safe environment,” he said.

U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., the chair and ranking Democrat of the House task force investigating the attempted assassination, said they encouraged Rowe “to follow through on his commitment to hold employees of the Secret Service accountable for the failures of July 13. We also expect him to continue cooperating with the task force’s ongoing independent investigation.”

The Associated Press contributed.