A Senate report released Wednesday revealed that the Secret Service agent in charge of President Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was aware of a credible threat against Trump but failed to share it with her superiors or security planners.
The 94-page report, issued by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, outlined significant security failures, including that the lead advance agent reported “no adverse intelligence” regarding Trump’s visit despite being informed of the threat.
The agent told investigators she had informed the special agent in charge (SAIC) of the Secret Service's Pittsburgh field office, but he denied receiving any such communication. The SAIC said that if he had known, the rally might have been moved indoors to mitigate the risk.
Secret Service counter-snipers, including the one who killed the assailant, were deployed to Trump's Butler rally due to a credible threat, marking the first time such a team protected someone other than a president or nominee. The agency decided pre-July 5 to assign snipers to all outdoor Trump events, based on classified threat intelligence. However, the lead agent failed to inform her supervisor of the threat, who later claimed he only learned of the sniper request through an email. Despite this, the lead agent falsely reported no adverse intelligence in her rally survey.
The Senate report concluded that the assassination attempt, which left one rallygoer dead, two others critically injured, and Trump wounded, was both foreseeable and preventable. It cited failures in planning, resource allocation, and coordination among federal and local authorities, all of which contributed to the near-fatal outcome.
Read more details and the full report here.
