A bipartisan , Senate , commission report released Wednesday found numerous , Secret Service , problems related to the , July 13 , near assassination , of previous President , Donald Trump , and recommended ways to help prevent another tragedy.
In its continued research into the firing at a , Pennsylvania  march, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee claimed the company had failed to coordinate with local law enforcement and device operations, which would have helped ensure the place was secure.
And the , Secret Service , failed to secure the top from which the gunman fired at Trump and did not react to the suspicious people spotted at the march, the report says.
” The Committee finds that USSS problems in organizing, communications, security, and allocation of resources for the , July 13, 2024 , Butler protest were near, unavoidable, and directly related to the activities resulting in the assassination attempt that day”, the statement says.
Sen.  , Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told investigators the findings of the investigation determined” a great storm of beautiful loss” was a result of accumulation of problems by the , Secret Service , on that day.
” In a sense, a lot of these unique failures, if corrected at the time, may have prevented this horror, and evidently it was a tragedy”, Blumenthal said. ” A man died, a former president was nearly killed, and it was absolutely treatable”.
The Secret Service, according to the report, must designate a single person to oversee all protecting event plans and ensure that national and local officials ‘ communications are carried out as directed.
And it says , Congress , was require , Secret Service , to “identify defined roles and responsibilities for USSS employees accountable for progress preparing of any watchful event”.
Politicians had even require , Secret Service , to “allocate goods and resources based on the risk level, not the place or name of the protectee”.
Congress , has already taken action on that issue, with both chambers passing legislation that would require parity for protections for presidents, vice president and major presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
Committee Chairman , Gary Peters, D-Mich., pointed to the inability to secure the AGR building from which the shooter took aim at Trump as a key issue in the failure of , Secret Service , during the rally.
” There was no clear chain of command on , July 13, and the , Secret Service , had no clear plan for how the AGR building would be covered”, Peters said. ” Local law enforcement told the , Secret Service , they did not have the manpower to lock down the AGR building, and the , Secret Service , failed to ensure the building and surrounding area were secured”.
The , Senate , committee’s report was based on 2, 800 internal documents and 12 in-depths interviews.  , The Secret Service , also , released results  , of an internal agency investigation that also identified communications gaps as key to failure.
Key moments
A timeline in the , Senate , committee report lays out key moments when the , Secret Service , failed to respond to the suspicious individual who would become the shooter at the incident.
Almost 30 minutes before the shooting,  , Secret Service , was notified about a suspicious person with a rangefinder, but agents told , Congress , they did n’t receive this information and local law enforcement lost of track of him, the report states.
Secret Service , was also notified by local law enforcement about the individual being on the roof two minutes before the shooting, but that information was not relayed to key personnel, the report found.
And shortly before the shots were fired, a , Secret Service , counter-sniper observed law enforcement running to the roof with guns drawn, but did n’t alert Trump’s protective detail to take him from the rally stage, the report found.
Sen.  , Rand Paul , of , Kentucky, the top Republican on the panel, told reporters the failure the heed these warnings was unacceptable.
Nobody thought the former president would be removed from the stage and that everyone else believed this guy to be suspicious, according to Paul.
Additionally, the report found that on-site agents ‘ training was lacking.  , The Secret Service , operator responsible for drone technology at the rally, the report found, lacked experience and knowledge about the equipment. With multiple difficulties in getting the system online after several phone calls over hours to fix the problem, the report found , Secret Service , “had no detection capabilities”.
The operator admitted to the committee his total hands-on training for the role “was n’t very long, less than an hour”, and he seemed unaware of basic functionality of the drone, including whether it had cellular capabilities, the report states.
The investigation found issue with communication “long-standing”, and , Secret Service , officials indicated it was” a known problem, something you just have to deal with on the job”, a , Senate , majority aide told reporters.
Further, the aide suggested , Secret Service , has n’t done enough to address the issue even after a rally incident in which a former president was almost shot.
” What the , Secret Service , has done in the interim, it does not — there’s been no indication about what long-term solutions are being contemplated or put in place”, the aide said.
Information issues
The committee report also faults , Secret Service , for” contradictory or incomplete information” in response to the investigation, such as deflecting responsibility in response to questions from senators on who had authority for the protected event.
The refusal to name the site’s lead coordinator and extensive redactions in written material delivered to Congress with important documents that are still unsolved were two issues.
The report states that” the USSS Lead Advance planning agents could not respond to inquiries about who, specifically, was in charge of determining the perimeter and who gave the approval for the designation of the perimeter. ” For example, when asked who was in charge of determining the perimeter for the Butler Farm Show site, the USSS Lead Advance Agent, Site Agent, and Site Counterpart, each individually explained that it was a joint effort based on available assets”.
Sen.  , Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said the lack of information being provided to , Congress , amounted to” stonewalling”, saying transcripts from an internal investigation Acting Secret Service Director , Ron Rowe , promised him during a committee hearing in July still have n’t been delivered.
” They are slow-walking this investigation”, Johnson said. I believe this committee needs to begin issuing subpoenas so that we can begin getting the records I’m demanding.”
Blumenthal went beyond the recommendations in the report and said the , Secret Service , needs new leadership from outside the agency.
” There needs to be, in my opinion, new leadership, beginning at the top”, Blumenthal said. We have an acting director who needs to be a permanent director, and I believe the new director should be a member of the organization with the authority to carry out extensive and fundamental reforms based on risk assessment and threat evaluation.
Funding question
The House , as early as Wednesday is , poised , to approve$ 231 million in additional funds for the , Secret Service , as part of a 12-week , stopgap measure , to avoid a government shutdown on , Sept. 30.
Lawmakers have been split on the idea about whether the , Secret Service , should get more funding. Senators involved with the report were split on party lines at least in terms of a continuing resolution, with , Democrats , in favor of the boost in funds and , Republicans , opposed.
Johnson was adamant about his opposition to the idea, pointing out the , Secret Service, over 10 years, has had their budget increased by 65 percent from$ 2 billion to$ 3.3 billion.
” It’s a rare problem in , Washington, D. C., where the first solution is n’t more money, more resources”, Johnson said. ” That’s why we’re$ 35 trillion in debt. This is not a problem with money or resources. Again.  , DHS , has$ 190 billion budget, 240, 000 people. They are detailed by , Secret Service. They can detail more. This is a management problem, plain and simple”.
Blumenthal, on the other hand, said “bad behavior should be corrected” but the report” clearly points to the need for more resources”, pointing to the absence of a counter-surveillance unit and a radio breakdown.
According to Blumenthal,” The Connecticut State Police may have more sophisticated equipment than the Secret Service.” ” I’m not saying they do, but that kind of failure is manifestly intolerable, and the , Secret Service , ought to have the equipment it needs. In an age of artificial intelligence and other technology, it needs the most advanced, and no questions asked”.
Paul threw cold water on the idea , Secret Service , needs more resources because the “mistakes made were human errors, not a lack of resources”. Peters was right to applaud the funding boost in the continuing resolution, but he continued that it was about the election’s immediate needs and that a solution “may involve money, it may not.”
A , Senate , aide said the committee has n’t set a date for the completion of the final report.
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