Report describes communication errors in Trump assassination attempt in July

WASHINGTON — Communication breakdowns with local law enforcement hampered the Secret Service’s performance before a Assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Julyaccording to a new report that lists a series of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured roof.

A five-page document summarizing the Secret Service report's key conclusions criticizes both local and federal law enforcement, highlighting the numerous and wide-ranging failures that preceded the July 13 shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which Trump was shot in the ear.

Although the failed response has been well documented through congressional testimony, news media investigations, and other public statements, the report released Friday represents the Secret Service's most formal attempt to catalog the day's failures and is being released amid renewed scrutiny after On Sunday, a man was arrested in Florida who authorities said wanted to kill Trump.

“It is important that we hold ourselves accountable for the mistakes of July 13 and use the lessons learned to ensure that a mission failure like this one does not happen again,” said Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. in a statement on the release of the report on the agency's internal investigation.

The report describes a series of “communication breakdowns” before the shooting of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot by a Secret Service sniper after firing eight shots in Trump's direction from the roof of a building less than 450 feet from where Trump was to speak. It makes clear that the Secret Service knew the venue posed a security risk even before the shooting.

Among the problems: Some local police officers on site were unaware of the existence of two communications centers on the premises. This meant that officers were unaware that the Secret Service was not receiving their radio transmissions.

Law enforcement also transmitted important information outside of Secret Service radio frequencies. When agents searched for Crooks before the shooting, the details were transmitted “via mobile devices in a staggered or fragmented manner” rather than over the Secret Service's own network.

“The failure of personnel to radio the description of the attacker or important information received by local law enforcement about a suspicious individual on the roof of the AGR complex to all federal officers at the Butler site compromised the collective attention of all Secret Service personnel,” the report said.

This breakdown was particularly problematic for Trump's security forces, “who were not informed of how focused state and local law enforcement were on locating the suspect in the minutes before the attack.” Had they known, the report says, they could have made the decision to move Trump while the manhunt was still underway.

The report raises more serious questions about why there were no police officers stationed on the roof where the crooks climbed before opening fire.

A local tactical team was stationed on the second floor of a building in the complex from which Crooks fired. Several law enforcement agencies questioned the effectiveness of the team's position, “but there were no further discussions” about changing it, the report said. And there were no discussions with the Secret Service about stationing a team on the roof, although local law enforcement snipers “did not appear to object to that location.”

The tactical team operating on the second floor of the building had no contact with the Secret Service before the rally. That team was called in by a local police department to support the event without the Secret Service's knowledge, the report said.

The Secret Service knew in advance that the venue, which Trump's aides had chosen because it could better accommodate the “large number of desired attendees,” posed a security risk due to sight lines that a potential attacker could exploit. Yet, the report says, no security measures were put in place on July 13 to address those concerns, and the Secret Service had no detailed knowledge of which local law enforcement agency would even be on site.

The report's summary does not name any specific culprits or say whether any staff members were disciplined. However, the Associated Press previously reported that at least five Secret Service agents were reassigned to altered duties. Then-director Kimberly Cheatle resigned more than a week after the shooting and said she took full responsibility for the failure.

The Secret Service investigation is one of numerous investigations, including by Congress and an oversight agency through the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.

Rowe said the July shooting and Sunday's incident – in which 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested after Secret Service agents discovered a rifle in the bushes at the edge of the West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where Trump was playing – underscore the need for a paradigm shift in the way the Secret Service protects public officials.