Secret Service agents reportedly on leave due to Trump assassination attempt
What questions remain in the Trump assassination
FILE – (Aug. 13) It’s been a month since former President Donald Trump was assassinated at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and many questions remain unanswered. LiveNOW’s Andrew Craft discusses it all with former Secret Service agent Bill Gage and national security analyst Hal Kempfer.
Several Secret Service agents, including a member of Donald Trump’s security team, have reportedly been placed on leave amid investigations into the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
Fox News confirmed that at least five Secret Service agents, four from the Pittsburgh field office and one from Trump’s team, have been placed on leave nearly six weeks after the incident.
The news comes as the Secret Service continues to investigate security breaches that allowed 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks to access the roof of a building less than 450 feet from the stage at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was speaking.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is ushered off the stage by U.S. Secret Service agents after he was grazed by a bullet during a 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
A bullet grazed Trump’s right ear and firefighter Corey Comperatore, a rally attendee, was shot and killed. Rally attendees James Copenhaver and David Dutch were also shot and wounded.
RELATED: Secret Service rejects offer for drone surveillance at Trump rally
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned 10 days later. At a congressional hearing on August 9, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. took blame for his own agency’s mistakes while criticizing local law enforcement for communication problems. Local law enforcement had apparently spotted Crooks on the roof before the shooting, but that message was not relayed to the Secret Service.
Video shows Trump shooters on roof
A video taken from behind former President Trump shows suspected shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks moving across the roof just outside the security perimeter at the Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two weeks ago.
“Neither the Secret Service sniper teams nor the former president’s security forces knew there was a man with a firearm on the roof of the building,” Rowe said at the hearing. “As far as I know, those personnel did not know the attacker had a firearm until they heard gunshots.”
RELATED: Police release bodycam footage of Trump assassination attempt at Pennsylvania rally
He said the shooting was a “failure on several levels,” including a lack of imagination and a “failure to challenge our assumptions.”
