A report by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General found that the U.S. Secret Service missed multiple opportunities to prevent or disrupt the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump as he spoke to supporters during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Security Lapses

The 64-page document detailed several lapses in security that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to get a line of sight of Trump as he stood on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the July 13, 2024, event. The report stated that the Secret Service’s overall lack of policy and processes coupled with limited intelligence sharing and poor collaboration and communication with protectee staff and state and local law enforcement set the conditions that led to missing opportunities to prevent and detect the attempted assassination.

Among the OIG’s findings was a failure to warn Trump’s protective detail that Crooks had a range finder and a semi-automatic rifle and had climbed onto the roof of a nearby building due to a lack of communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement.

Crooks was able to fire eight shots. Trump was grazed in the ear, and Corey Comperatore, 50, who was attending the rally, was killed. Two other spectators were critically injured but survived.

Recommendations

The report offered several recommendations to improve the Secret Service’s processes for securing events, such as mandatory threat communication, enhanced counter-drone training, and a process to formally document the identification and blocking of line-of-sight vulnerabilities.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.