6 Secret Service Agents Suspended Over 2024 Trump Assassination Attempt

NDTV

2 days ago

Washington:
The US Secret Service suspended six of its agents "for failures" in connection with an assassination attempt on the presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania's Butler last year, ABC News first reported Wednesday. The report came just four days before the anniversary of the July 13, 2024, shooting incident that left Trump with a bloody ear.
The positions of the suspended agents ranged from supervisory level to line agent level, a source told the American publications.
Matt Quinn, Deputy Director of the United States Secret Service (USSS), told CBS News that personnel's suspensions varied from 10 to 42 days as they were disciplined per a federally mandated process.
"We aren't going to fire our way out of this...We're going to focus on the root cause and fix the deficiencies that put us in that situation," said Quinn.
He told the outlet that upon their return, the suspended members were put on restricted duty or given posts with less operational responsibility.
"Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler...Butler was an operational failure, and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again," he added.
Security at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has been under scrutiny, with serious concerns about how the suspect--20-year-old Thomas Crooks--was able to access a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to where the then Republican presidential nominee Trump was speaking.
Corey Comperatore, a firefighter attending Trump's campaign rally that day, was killed, and two others were wounded in the shooting. Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director at the time, resigned 10 days after the attack.
In the aftermath of the attack, an independent review by the Department of Homeland Security found there were a series of law enforcement breakdowns that created an environment that left Trump vulnerable to the shooter.
"The Secret Service does not perform at the elite levels needed to discharge its critical mission...The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved," the report said.