Six weeks after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential candidate, at least five members of the US secret service have been placed on leave.

According to Fox News, those on leave include a member of Trump’s personal security team and the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office.

USSS communications chief Anthony Guglielmi said the investigation is ongoing to determine how Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old responsible for the assassination, managed to get into position and fire several shots before he was stopped.

“The U.S. Secret Service requires our personnel to adhere to the highest professional standards, and any identified and proven violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility and may result in disciplinary action,” Guglielmi said, according to Fox News.

Demands for accountability

The July 13 incident occurred at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Thugs who climbed a building near the venue shot at Trump and the crowd, injuring the former president’s ear and killing firefighter Corey Comperatore. Two other people were also injured.

Subsequently, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned and was replaced by acting director Ronald Rowe.

Meanwhile, more details of the attack have come to light. Among other things, a whistleblower claims that Secret Service agents were advised not to request additional security measures and that Crooks was identified by local police as a potential threat before he opened fire.

Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) disclosed the whistleblower’s allegations in a post to X, saying agents had been told requests for additional security personnel would be denied.

In a letter to Rowe, Hawley demanded a response to this claim.

“Yet you have repeatedly claimed that no security was denied for the Butler affair,” Hawley wrote. “You must immediately explain this obvious contradiction.”

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said the Secret Service must be held accountable for its failure to protect Trump.

“Holding negligent employees accountable is the first step,” Comer said, according to Fox News. “I look forward to the results of the task force’s investigation. We must ensure that the Secret Service does not fail again.”

Communication error

Body camera footage of the attack revealed the frustration of local police over the failure to heed their warnings about a man on a nearby roof.

According to CNN, a communication breakdown between local police and the Secret Service contributed to Crooks not being arrested before the shooting.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told CNN that the lack of communication between the two agencies was due to poor communications systems.

“There was no unified radio channel for all officers on the property to communicate in the event of an emergency – instead, units were connected through various radio channels, group chats and even emails,” Grassley said. “Officers were heavily reliant on spotty cell reception to transmit their messages and were often unsure if they were reaching the correct police agency.”

According to CNN, Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana revealed in a report on the assassination attempt that local police had provided radios to the Secret Service to facilitate communication between agencies, but Secret Service teams had not picked them up despite reminders.

“I can confirm that the Butler County ESU team provided radios to the Secret Service and that they were not used by the Secret Service,” Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said in a statement to CNN.

It’s not clear whether the radios would have made a difference, but Goldinger said if the Secret Service had access to them and was paying attention, they would have been aware of the threat.

“This was a failure of the Secret Service,” Rowe told reporters during a conference earlier this month, according to CNN. “The roof should have been taken off.”