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A Senate report has identified multiple Secret Service failure during President Donald Trump’s July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that contributed to the assassination attempt against him.
The 94-page interim report noted issues that included poor coordination with local law enforcement and failure to effectively secure the site where Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet and one man was fatally shot.
The findings in the report were released in a joint investigation with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
“Every single one of these actions is directly related to a failure in the U.S. Secret Service’s planning, communications, intelligence sharing and law enforcement coordination efforts,” Chairman Gary Peters told reporters Tuesday.
“Every single one of those failures was preventable, and the consequences of those failures were dire,” he added.
Texas Rep. Lance Gooden called the report “nothing short of an embarrassment.”
Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe also released a statement following the report’s release.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service,” Rowe said. “It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13 and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again.”
The report also follows Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) whistleblower report earlier this month documenting the “catastrophic failure” of the Secret Service surrounding the assassination attempt against Trump in July.
“Following the latest assassination attempt on @realDonaldTrump, I’m releasing a comprehensive Whistleblower Report on the multiple failures of Secret Service & DHS – including new allegations & numerous unanswered questions due to USSS stonewalling,” Hawley wrote on X.
Hawley’s report introduced three new findings. First, “The lead agent responsible for the entire Butler visit, including the rally, failed a key examination during their federal law enforcement training to become a Secret Service agent.”
In addition, “Secret Service intelligence units—teams of Secret Service agents paired with state and local law enforcement to handle reports of suspicious persons—were absent from the Butler rally.
Another concern related to the hospital where Trump was treated following the shooting.
“The hospital site where former President Trump received treatment after the shooting was poorly secured, and the hospital site agent could not answer basic questions about site security,” the report stated.