WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Multiple Secret Service ahead of the July rally for former President Donald Trump where a gunman were 鈥渇oreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day,鈥� according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.
Similar to the agency鈥檚 own and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania , including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources.
鈥淭he consequences of those failures were dire,鈥� said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel.
Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan for coverage of the building where the shooter climbed up to fire the shots. Officials were operating on multiple, separate radio channels, leading to missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a help line after his equipment wasn鈥檛 working correctly.
Communications among security officials were a 鈥渕ulti-step game of telephone," Peters said.
The report found the Secret Service was notified about an individual on the roof of the building approximately two minutes before shooter opened fire, firing eight rounds in Trump鈥檚 direction less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was in the assassination attempt, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Approximately 22 seconds before Crooks fired, the report found, a local officer sent a radio alert that there was an armed individual on the building. But that information was not relayed to key Secret Service personnel who were interviewed by Senate investigators.
The panel also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing officers with their guns drawn running toward the building where the shooter was perched, but the person said they did not think to notify anyone to get Trump off the stage.
The Senate report comes just days after the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be finalized Secret Service on what went wrong, and ahead of a Thursday hearing that will be held by a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting. The House panel is also investigating a on Trump earlier this month when Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump鈥檚 Florida club.
In a statement Wednesday, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency had already implemented some of the committee's suggestions and vowed to work transparently with Congress and other oversight bodies investigating the July 13th shooting. He said the agency had already raised Trump's security to the 鈥渉ighest level of protection that the U.S. Secret Service can provide.鈥�
"We are also diligently examining long-term solutions to challenges such as enhancing communications and interoperability with our federal, state and local partners to make sure our coordinated efforts during protective events are seamless," he said.
Each investigation has found new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president鈥檚 security, and lawmakers say there is much more they want to find out as they try to prevent it from happening again.
鈥淭his was the result of multiple human failures of the Secret Service,鈥� said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel.
The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protective event, including by designating a single individual in charge of approving all the security plans. Investigators found that many of the people in charge denied that they had responsibility for planning or security failures, and deflected blame.
Advance agents interviewed by the committee said 鈥渢hat planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval,鈥� the report said.
Communication with local authorities was also poor. Local law enforcement had raised concern two days earlier about security coverage of the building where the shooter perched, telling Secret Service agents during a walk through that they did not have the manpower to lock it down. Secret Service agents then gave investigators conflicting accounts about who was responsible for that security coverage, the report said.
The internal review released last week by the Secret Service also detailed multiple communications breakdowns, including an absence of clear guidance to local law enforcement and the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and 鈥渃omplacency鈥� among some agents.
鈥淭his was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It鈥檚 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,鈥� said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency鈥檚 acting director, after the report was released.
In addition to better defining responsibility for events, the senators recommended that the agency completely overhaul its communications operations at protective events and improve intelligence sharing. They also recommended that Congress evaluate whether more resources are needed.
Democrats and Republicans have in the wake of its failures. A spending bill on track to pass before the end of the month includes for the agency, but many Republicans have said that an internal overhaul is needed first.
鈥淭his is a management problem plain and simple,鈥� said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Homeland panel's investigations subcommittee.
Mary Clare Jalonick And Rebecca Santana, The Associated Press
