The Secret Service placed multiple personnel on leave following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The agency placed five people on leave, a source familiar told news outlets on Friday: one person from Trump’s personal protective team and four from the Pittsburgh field office, including the special agent in charge. RealClearPolitics reported details of the disciplinary steps on Thursday.
The Secret Service declined to comment on the reports but said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that it “holds our personnel to the highest professional standards.”
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” said Anthony Guglielmi, Secret Service chief of communications. “The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”
CNN reported the agents had been reassigned to administrative duties in the wake of the shooting, which left one person dead and three, including the former president, injured. The Secret Service has been scrutinized by both political parties for the breach of security that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, to access a nearby building and fire eight rounds at Trump.
One of the bullets grazed Trump’s ear, while Corey Comperatore, a former firefighter chief, was struck and killed while protecting his family from the gunfire. David Dutch and James Copenhaver were also injured in the shooting — Dutch was released from the hospital in late July, and Copenhaver was released a few days afterward.
The security failures at the rally prompted widespread criticism of the Secret Service, so much so that Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after a contentious hearing before the House Oversight Committee.
The news that Secret Service personnel are on leave due to the shooting comes after acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe heatedly told senators at a hearing for the shooting that he did not want to “zero in” and fire agents or relieve them of duty without all of the information.
“You’re asking me, Senator, to completely make a rush to judgment about somebody failing,” Rowe responded last month to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who angrily asked him why no one had been fired at that time. “I acknowledge this was a failure. … I will tell you that I will not rush to judgment, that people will be held accountable, and I will do so with integrity.”
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House leaders set up a bipartisan task force to investigate the shooting, while hard-line Republicans led by Reps. Cory Mills (R-FL) and Eli Crane (R-AZ) are holding their own parallel investigation. The independent group will hold its first hearing next week on the same day the official bipartisan task force will have a press conference at the shooting site.
Trump held his first outdoor rally since the shooting this week in North Carolina, where he was surrounded by bulletproof glass as a precaution. He left the bulletproof glass to help a woman in need of medical attention, surrounded by Secret Service agents.
