Secret Service suspended staff for failings over Trump assassination attempt
The American secret services issued suspensions for six staff members for failures during one of Donald Trump’s rallies last year, during which a shooter tried to assassinate the republican, confirmed a manager.
The rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Matthew Crooks shot Trump and killed another participant, was an “operational failure”, according to a secret service report published Thursday – a few days before the one year marking for the incident.
One of the Crooks bullets touched Trump’s ear, which was then safe. The striker was shot.
It is not clear when the suspensions of the staff have been officially issued, and American media reports differ in the fact that they have already been signified.
The staff received penalties ranging from 10 to 42 days off without salary or services, said the agency.
“The secret services are fully responsible for Butler,” said Matt Quinn, deputy director of the service, the US BBC CBS News. “Butler has been an operational failure and we focus today on the guarantee that this is no longer happening.”
Quinn, who was appointed to his role in May this year, added that he was “focused on the laser to solve the deep cause of the problem”, but the organization “did not draw our way”.
He told CBS that a number of improvements had already been made, involving military quality drones and improved mobile command posts which could now be used by agents on the ground.
The identity of the suspended staff and their roles on the day of the attack have not been disclosed.
Among the reforms, the secret services have declared that they have implemented are “clear lines” of responsibility, the sharing of information improvement with the local partners of the application of laws and the creation of an aviation and aerial space security division which “dedicated to the maintenance of critical air surveillance capacities”.
In extracts from an interview with Fox News that will be broadcast on Saturday, Trump said that American secret services “had a bad day” to Butler, but that it was “satisfied” with the shooting investigation.
“There were mistakes. And that shouldn’t have happened,” Trump said in the interview.
The news comes a few days before the attack on the attack on July 13, 2024. Corey Comperatore, participating in the rally, was killed and two other people injured.
The incident caused the then service director of the service, Kimberly Cheatle.
The secret services have been under intense surveillance for 12 months and have faced strong criticism from the US Congress.
Last September, a 94 -page Senate report revealed that security failures and lack of communication within American secret services “directly contributed” to the incident, and that many questions remained without work two months later.
The attack was also described as avoidable in another report, published in December by a working group in the House of Representatives. This document identified the main lance as a failure to secure the roof from which the crooks opened fire.
Trump, who was successfully re -elected in November, received increased security in the aftermath of the attack – ensuring that he received protection at a higher level than what is typical of a presidential candidate.
In September, he was again precipitated safely by secret service agents after a second potential shooter was hidden in bushes on the Trump golf course in Florida. The FBI has also described this as an attempt at apparent assassination.
The suspect of this second incident was detained.
