A series of Secret Service mishaps have been revealed in a new report on the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, last summer.
The Government Accountability Office put the report together at the request of Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who said in a statement that what happened at Trump’s rally on July 13, 2024, came after several “bad decisions and bureaucratic handicaps.”
The agency “failed to implement security measures” that could have prevented the assassination attempt, the report states.
Grassley’s office released the report Saturday. It highlighted multiple shortcomings by the Secret Service, noting major communication mishaps as well as a “lack of specific and complete guidance” for the agents at the rally.
The report found that senior officials at the agency were aware of a possible threat against Trump before the rally, Politico noted. However, the threat was “not specific to the July 13 rally or gunman.”
Secret Service and local law enforcement were “unaware of the threat” because of the agency’s “siloed practice for sharing classified threat information.”
The report made the recommendation that the agency commit to “Making changes to Secret Service policies to require it to proactively share threat information internally could help ensure its agents and partners will have information needed to provide effective protection.”
The report also noted failures in planning and communication, agent training, and the allocation of resources for those protected by the service.
“The Secret Service’s failure on July 13th was the culmination of years of mismanagement and came after the Biden administration denied requests for enhanced security to protect President Trump,” said Grassley. “Americans should be grateful that President Trump survived that day and was ultimately reelected to restore common sense to our country.”
“I’m hopeful this significant injection of resources will go a long way in bringing the agency up to speed,” he added.
During the assassination attempt against Trump, who was then a presidential candidate, the gunman fired eight shots, one of which grazed Trump’s ear. One attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed, and two others were injured. A sniper subsequently killed the gunman.
The report stated that many Secret Service officers “encountered limited service” on their cellphones during the rally, possibly preventing effective communication.
Grassley noted that $1.17 billion was allocated to the agency as part of the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, noting that he will work along with the agency to “repair what’s broken” as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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