Secret Service faces continued scrutiny after assassination attempt on Trump, agents placed on leave

Six weeks after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential nominee, at least five members of the U.S. Secret Service have been placed on administrative leave.
According to Fox News, those placed on leave include a member of Trump’s personal protective detail and the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh Field Office.
USSS Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi stated that the investigation is ongoing to determine how Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old responsible for the assassination attempt, managed to position himself and fire several shots before being stopped.
“The U.S. Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action,” Guglielmi said, per Fox News.
The July 13 incident occurred at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks, who climbed a building near the event, fired shots at Trump and the crowd, nicking the former president’s ear and killing firefighter Corey Comperatore. Two others were also injured.
In the aftermath, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned and was replaced by Acting Director Ronald Rowe.
Further details of the assassination attempt have since emerged, including a whistleblower’s claim that Secret Service agents were advised not to request additional security measures and that Crooks had been identified as a potential threat by local police before he opened fire.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., disclosed the whistleblower’s allegations on a post to X, stating that agents were told requests for extra security would be denied.
In a letter addressed to Rowe, Hawley demanded that answers be provided to this claim.
“Yet you have repeatedly suggested that no security assets had been denied for the Butler event,” Hawley wrote. “You must explain this apparent contradiction immediately.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said that the Secret Service needs to be held accountable for its failure to protect Trump.
“Holding negligent employees accountable is the first step,” Comer said, per Fox News. “I look forward to the Task Force’s findings of its investigation. We must ensure the Secret Service does not fail again.”
Body camera footage of the assassination attempt revealed local police frustration that their warnings about a man on a nearby roof were not heeded.
A breakdown in communication between local police and the Secret Service contributed to the failure to apprehend Crooks before the shooting, per CNN.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told CNN that the lack of communication between the two agencies was a result of poor communication systems.
“There was no unified radio channel for all law enforcement on the premises to communicate in the event of an emergency — instead, units connected over various radio channels, group chats and even emails,” Grassley said. “Officers relied heavily on spotty cell service to get their messages through, and were often unsure if the right law enforcement entity received them.”
According to CNN, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., revealed in a report on the assassination attempt that local police had set aside radios for the Secret Service to facilitate communication between the agencies, but the Secret Service teams failed to pick them up despite being reminded.
“I can confirm that the Butler County ESU team made radios available to the Secret Service and that they were not utilized by the Secret Service,” Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said in a statement to CNN.
It is uncertain if the radios would have made a difference, but Goldinger expressed that if Secret Service had access to them and were paying attention, they would have been alerted to the threat.
“This was a Secret Service failure,” Rowe told reporters during a conference earlier this month, per CNN. “That roof should have been covered.”