Secret Service Hampered by Poor Decisions, Leadership Failures: Butler Incident Report
An independent report says glaring issues with the U.S. Secret Service contributed to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. It says unless the agency undergoes “fundamental reform” another Butler could happen again.
The U.S. Secret Service must undergo “fundamental reform” if it is to avoid future incidents like the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
That’s according to a new report released by the bipartisan Independent Review Panel, which reviewed the Secret Service procedures leading up to and immediately after the assassination attempt on July 13, 2024.
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied, and technology has evolved,” wrote the review panel in its letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “The work of the Independent Review Panel uncovered not only numerous mistakes that led to the events of July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, but also deeper, systemic issues that must be addressed with urgency.”
Systemic Issues
On the topic of systemic issues, the report noted that workforce staffing is not the core of the problem, but instead failures of leadership, poor decision making, and structural issues within the agency are to blame, and must be fixed to avoid another Butler.
Those structural issues include an outlook of doing more with less, which the panel found has “inevitable corrosive effects on protective decision-making over time.”
Secret Service officials were also cited for a “troubling lack of critical thinking” around the Butler incident, for failing to secure the roof where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired the shots, failing to find Crooks despite being notified that about a suspicious person some 90 minutes before shots were fired, and failing to have an appropriate unified communications center.
The report indicated that the lack of judgment could stem from a whole host of workplace issues, including complacency, burnout, inadequate training, resource pressure, and incompetence.
The agency was also accused of being insular and overprotective, and failing to conduct proper review of events.
“The panel has observed that many of the Secret Service personnel involved in the events of July 13 appear to have done little in the way of self-reflection in terms of identifying areas of missteps, omissions or opportunities for improvement,” the report stated.
The report also urged more training, including the creation of a leadership training center.
DHS Reaction
DHS Secretary Mayorkas said he’s met with the four panel members and has read the report.
“We will fully consider the Panel’s recommendations and are taking the actions needed to advance the Secret Service’s protection mission. These actions will be responsive not only to the security failures that led to the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt, but, importantly, to what the Independent Review Panel describes as systemic and foundational issues that underlie those failures,” Secretary Mayorkas said in a statement.
House Panel Report
Meanwhile, a bipartisan House panel investigating the assassination attempt also chastised the Secret Service for leadership failures.
In a preliminary report, the bipartisan panel called the incident “preventable” adding that the investigation found “a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the rally.”