One participant was killed, two other injured and a bullet touched Donald Trump’s ear before a shot of the secret services opened fire on Crooks and kills him. That day turned a race for the White House already chaotic and consolidated Donald Trump’s icon in his party and beyond.
It was also a turning point for the president’s protection agency. As more details on the circumstances of the incident emerged, the questions have multiplied: where did the secret service plan go? Why was a roof offering a clear view of Donald Trump was left unattended? What motivated the shooter?
A year ago today, Trump was injured by ball (F24/Videoelephant)
Another incident that occurred in September, where an armed man camped in the bushes outside one of Donald Trump’s golf courses before being spotted and targeted by a secret service agent, also raised questions about the agency’s performance.
A year after Butler, several investigations detailed the dysfunctions that occurred that day. Under the direction of a new leader appointed by Donald Trump, the agency strives to solve these problems, but key questions remain.
“This was an alarm signal for the secret services,” said Bobby McDonald, retired supervision agent and today a conference in criminal law at New Haven University.
A senatorial commission and a federal audit agency published reports on the actions of the secret service this end of the week.
Here is an overview of the problems that have occurred, measures taken to remedy it and still unanswered questions.
How is it mounted on this roof? Who was talking to anyone?
All surveys focused on some specific problems.
The building, whose scene where the president was expressed was visible at only 135 meters, was left unattended. Crooks ended up climbing there and fired eight shots with an AR type rifle.
The survey of the secret services on the conduct of their own agency revealed that the problem was not that the risks linked to direct visibility were not known in advance, but that several staff members had deemed them “acceptable”.
The supervisors expected large agricultural equipment to be placed to hide the view from the building. These were not finally placed, and the staff members who went on the spot before the rally did not inform their supervisors that direct visibility problems had not been resolved, according to the report.
Another blatant problem: the fragmentation of communications between the secret services and the local police, on which the agency relies regularly to secure events.
Instead of a unified command post with representatives of each agency ensuring security in the same room, there were two command posts during the rally. An investigation described a “chaotic mixture” of radio, cellular, text and emails used to communicate that day.
A year later, surveys are still in progress.
“There have been multiple unacceptable failures in the planning and execution of the butler rally of July 13,” said the senatorial commission for internal security and government affairs in a report published on Sunday.
The Commission noted that the agency had rejected “multiple requests for personnel, additional means and resources to protect President Trump” during the presidential campaign. The Commission said it included at least two requests for the butler rally.
Last year, the former director of the agency, Kim Cheatle, told a commission of the House of Representatives, before his resignation, that the agency had not rejected any request for this rally.
In a statement published on Sunday in response to the Senate report, Ms. Cheatle explained: “For the gathering of Butler, I actually ordered the provision of additional means, in particular in the form of elite shooters of the agency.”
Another report by Government Accountability Office, requested by the republican senator of Iowa Chuck Grassley, criticized agency’s practices in terms of information sharing.
This report indicated that senior agency officials were aware of a specific threat against Donald Trump in the days preceding the rally. This threat was not specific to the rally, but it had not been communicated to agents or local police who organized it.
The report explained that the lack of information sharing was due to the agency’s partitioned practices in terms of information sharing. He did not provide details on the threat, although information from the time indicated that an Iranian threat against Donald Trump’s life had required a strengthening of security measures in the days preceding the butler rally.
“Make such an event never happen again”
The agency explained on Sunday that after the assassination attempt, she “seriously examined” her operations and undertaken important reforms to face the events of that day.
Earlier this week, the agency published its own report on its actions on Thursday.
“Since President Trump appointed me director of American secret services, I have kept in mind the experience of July 13, and the agency has taken many measures for such an event to happen again,” said Sean Curran, that Donald Trump has responsible for leading the agency. Mr. Curran was one of the agents present alongside Trump when he was evacuated from the scene after the shooting.
The agency said it had implemented 21 of the 46 recommendations made by the Congress surveillance bodies. The others were either in the process of implementation or out of reach of the agency.
