A 180-page final report examining two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump was published by a House task force on Tuesday, December 10. The report concluded that the deadly July incident was “preventable and should not have happened.”
The bipartisan task force of 13 members was formed immediately after the summer attack. The group conducted 46 interviews and scrutinized 18,000 pages of documents during their investigation of the incidents that took place in July and September.
The report outlined “various failures in planning, execution, and leadership” that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, to shoot at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks, who was subsequently killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper, managed to injure Trump in the right ear and also killed one rally attendee while injuring two others.
Ronald Rowe, Acting Director of the Secret Service, accepted the agency’s “abject failure” during his testimony before the task force. Rowe’s admission was made during a charged final hearing that led to a fiery exchange with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) over security measures at a September 11 commemoration ceremony.
The task force found that several Secret Service personnel incorrectly evaluated the risks from nearby buildings in Butler, Pennsylvania, which enabled Crooks to position himself quite a distance from Trump. The report also revealed that planned security measures involving farm equipment were not put into action, and supervisors were not informed of this lapse.
Meanwhile, the report commended the agency’s response to an attempted attack on September 15 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Secret Service agents swiftly neutralized a threat posed by Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, before any shots could be fired. Routh was taken into custody after an agent saw him pointing a gun through bushes near Trump’s golf course. Police later recovered Routh’s firearm, bulletproof materials, and recording equipment from his location.
The task force offered 37 recommendations to prevent future security breaches. Among these were suggestions to reduce the number of individuals under Secret Service protection and to evaluate whether the agency should continue investigating fraud and financial crimes.
The leaders of the task force expressed concerns about a “culture of silence” within the Secret Service. They noted that the agency has had difficulties adapting to changing security challenges. The report underscored issues with staffing, and communication failures between federal and local law enforcement, and questioned if the Secret Service should remain under the Department of Homeland Security.
