A Senate Homeland Security Committee report released Wednesday shows that the U.S. Secret Service denied at least nine requests to increase former President Donald Trump’s security leading up to the assassination attempt on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Although the additionally requested resources would have been helpful, the assets were denied “at times without explanation,” according to the report. As a result, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks nearly assassinated the former president when he fired shots at Trump from a rooftop positioned just 130 yards from the rally stage, killing an attendee and injuring others.
“The USSS C-UAS operator told the Committee he requested additional C-UAS equipment and personnel in the days before the rally,” the report reads. “However, these 9 requests were denied, at times without explanation.”
Trump’s security detail also requested “Counter Assault Team liaisons” to aid their coordination efforts in advance of the rally, but the Secret Service denied their request, according to the report.
The report found that counter snipers were only assigned to Trump’s detail at the Butler rally after “credible intelligence” of a threat was identified by officials ahead of the event. Although snipers were eventually assigned, the report found that they didn’t have a clear line of sight.
The report also cited several communications failures, faulty technology, planning missteps and lack of coordination between local and federal law enforcement.
“What happened on July 13 was an accumulation of errors that produced a perfect storm of stunning failure,” Chairman Richard Blumenthal said in a press release. “It was a tragedy and completely preventable from the outset. There was both a failure to provide resources – like a working radio, drone detection system, or counter surveillance team – and lack of an effective chain of command. Looking forward, we need structural reform in the agency itself.”
At the Butler rally, 20-year-old Thomas was spotted by attendees, flagged by Secret Service and identified by a local counter sniper over an hour before he took aim and fired shots at Trump, according to the report. Two months later, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was apprehended and charged after a Secret Service agent spotted his “AK-47 style rifle with a scope” poking out of the bushes on the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service,” Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe said after the Senate report was released. “It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again.”
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