WASHINGTON — A half dozen Secret Service agents were punished for failures in connection with the attempted assassination of then-candidate President Donald Trump last year.
A gunman, identified as Thomas Crooks, opened fire on the president as he spoke at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, CNN reported.
One rally-goer was killed and Trump was wounded in the ear.
Six agents, from the line agent level to the supervisory level, were suspended for a period of 10 to 42 days, ABC News reported. The punishments came in recent months, but no firm timeline was reported.
Two of the agents are appealing the punishment, CNN reported.
No agents were fired, Fox News reported.
Deputy Director Matt Quinn told CBS News that the suspended agents were given restricted roles with less responsibility when they returned to work.
There were several Congressional investigations as well as internal agency investigations that found there were several failures that day, including communications issues with local police.
Police had noticed Crooks on the roof of a nearby building and confronted him before he opened fire, CNN reported.
The Congressional investigation found that agents shuffled blame and said that no one person was in charge that day.
“The events of July 13, 2024, were tragic and preventable, and the litany of related security failures are unacceptable,” a House task force said in a report released in December, CBS News reported.
The Department of Homeland Security, which conducted its own independent review, said there were a series of law enforcement breakdowns that day.
“The Secret Service does not perform at the elite levels needed to discharge its critical mission,” the DHS said, according to ABC News. “The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved.”
The Secret Service Director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned, but not until 10 days after the shooting.
The agency has added new technology, including new military-grade drones and mobile command posts to allow communication between them and local law enforcement, CBS News reported.
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