At least five Secret Service agents have been given modified duties following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in July, a police official told the Associated Press.
They include the special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office and three other agents assigned to that office, which was responsible for security planning ahead of the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to the law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the matter. One of the five agents was assigned to Trump’s security staff, the official said.
The official was not authorized to publicly disclose details of the personnel investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The agents are on leave, meaning they are not allowed to carry out any investigative or protective activities.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Because this is a personnel matter, we are unable to comment further.”
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” the statement said. “The U.S. Secret Service’s mission security review is progressing, and we are investigating the processes, procedures, and factors that led to this operational failure. The U.S. Secret Service holds its personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and proven policy violations will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for possible disciplinary action.”
Multiple investigations have been launched as authorities examine a complex law enforcement failure that allowed a man with an AR-style rifle to get close enough to shoot and wound Trump at the rally.
Trump was struck in the ear but escaped serious injury. One bystander, former firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed and two others were wounded. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, was killed by a bullet fired by a Secret Service agent.
The shooting represented a devastating failure by the agency to fulfill one of its core missions and led to the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle.
At a congressional hearing after the attack, Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service had received two to five reports of a suspicious person before the shooting. She also revealed that the rooftop from which Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential weak point days before the rally.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr., who took over after Cheatle’s resignation, said he could not justify why the roof was not better secured.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of Butler is one of the chairmen of a bipartisan House task force that earlier this month asked all federal agencies involved to forward documents and information about the shooting.
Kelly – an eyewitness to the shooting at the rally and a lifelong Butler resident – called on officials at the Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service, Justice Department and FBI to release all documents and information related to the attack, even though the material has already been forwarded to various House and Senate committees.
The task force was approved in a resolution last month after several hearings on Capitol Hill revealed more details about the shooter and security lapses before and during the rally.
Despite police officers being stationed in and around the building on the farm property, Crooks managed to climb over an outer wall, get into position, confront a local police officer with his rifle, and fire a fatal volley into the crowd of protesters.
Crooks’ ability to position himself on an unguarded rooftop just 450 feet from Trump has puzzled security experts. Police say he scouted the area in advance and flew a drone over it hours before the rally began.
A number of experts interviewed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette say both the Secret Service and local law enforcement were responsible for the critical mishaps that led to the first assassination attempt on a president or former president since Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981 after leaving a speech in Washington, D.C.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Antonio Sanchez, a former Miami-Dade police chief who has participated in several Secret Service protection teams during presidential elections in Florida. “There was no reason for this guy to be lurking around here.”
Kelly and other members of the task force are scheduled to return to the scene of the rally shooting on Monday.
Trump has announced that he will return to Butler for a rally in October, but no specific date or further details were given.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Balsamo and Rebecca Santana of The Associated Press and Megan Guza of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS).
