Intelligence report describes communication failures before July assassination | News, Sports, Jobs

WASHINGTON – Communication problems with local law enforcement hampered the Secret Service's performance during a July campaign rally where former President Donald Trump was shot and wounded, according to a document released Friday that lists a litany of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured rooftop.

A five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of an ongoing report reveals the numerous and far-reaching failures that preceded the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which Trump was shot in the ear.

These include the Secret Service's lack of clear instructions to local law enforcement, the failure to fix line-of-sight weaknesses at the rally site that exposed Trump to sniper fire, and “Complacency” among some agents, said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency's acting director.

Although the failed response has been well documented through congressional testimony, news media investigations and other public statements, the summary document released Friday represents the Secret Service's most formal attempt to catalog the day's mistakes. It comes as the agency faces renewed scrutiny following the arrest on Sunday of a man who authorities said had been stalking Trump at a Florida golf course.

“This was a failure of US intelligence. It is important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13 and use the lessons learned to ensure that such a failure does not happen again,” Rowe said this at a press conference accompanying the release of the summary. The full document is still being finalized.

The report describes a number of “Communication deficiencies” before the shooting of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed 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 speaking. That building had been identified as a potential threat before the event, Rowe said, but officials did not take appropriate steps to address the potential problems.

“Line of sight issues were identified but not adequately mitigated. On the day of the visit, issues related to line of sight issues arose but were not communicated to superiors,” said Rowe. “While some members of the extended team were very diligent, others demonstrated negligence that resulted in a breach of safety protocols.”

Other problems included that some local police officers on the scene were unaware of the existence of two communications centers on the property, meaning the officers were unaware that the Secret Service was not receiving their radio transmissions.

Law enforcement also relied excessively on cell phones rather than Secret Service radio frequencies to transmit vital information. When officers searched for Crooks before the shooting, details were transmitted “via mobile/cellular devices in a staggered or fragmented manner” rather than through 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 person 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 says. That's an acronym for AGR International Inc., a manufacturing facility north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where the rally took place.

This breakdown was particularly problematic for Trump's security personnel. “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 about this, the report says, they could have made the decision to move Trump to another location while the manhunt for the shooter was 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. “Nevertheless, there was no follow-up discussion” about a change, the report says.