Photo: Alamy
The U.S. Secret Service failed to share a classified threat warning about President Donald Trump’s safety ahead of the July 13, 2024, campaign rally where he was nearly assassinated, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office revealed by Sen. Chuck Grassley.
In a Senate floor speech Monday night, Grassley said the GAO’s report pointed to serious breakdowns in communication within the Secret Service and across law enforcement agencies before the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally where a gunman opened fire, injuring Trump and killing a bystander.
“This past weekend, the Government Accountability Office produced [to] me its report on the July 13 assassination attempt,” Grassley told colleagues. “The Government Accountability Office’s report starts by stating, ‘The U.S. Secret Service failed to implement security measures that could’ve prevented the assassination attempt on then-former President Donald J. Trump during a July 13, 2024, campaign rally.'”
The report stated that the Secret Service had received an intelligence threat more than a week before the event. The information was not shared with agents on the ground or with local law enforcement responsible for securing the rally site.
“According to the report, prior to the July 13 rally, Secret Service received information from the Intelligence Community about a threat against President Trump’s life,” Grassley said. “Yet, this threat information wasn’t shared with Secret Service personnel or local law enforcement officials all responsible for securing that event.”
The GAO clarified the threat was not specific to the rally or the shooter, but the failure to share the intelligence still impacted the security planning.
“Prior to the July 13 rally, senior-level Secret Service officials became aware of a threat to then-former President Trump,” the report stated. “This information was not specific to the July 13 rally or gunman.”
Grassley said the failure to communicate that intelligence may have altered how officials secured the AGR building, the location from which the shooter fired eight rounds. One of those bullets struck Trump’s right ear, while another killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore.
The GAO attributed the lapse to internal policies and classification procedures that kept the information siloed within the agency. “Due to the Secret Service’s siloed practice for sharing classified threat information, Secret Service and local law enforcement personnel central to developing site security plans for the rally were unaware of the threat,” the report summary stated.