NEWS ALERT: Senate Committee releases scathing report on Secret Service failures

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From the New York Times: No one was in charge of planning and security decisions for the July 13 campaign rally where former President Donald J. Trump was shot, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday by a Senate committee that described a withering list of Secret Service failings.

Diffuse and blurred leadership roles for the event in Butler, Pa., led to communications breakdowns and security lapses, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee found. There was confusion over who was supposed to secure the building from which the gunman opened fire. There were multiple plans in place, none of them definitive. There were urgent warnings that were picked up but then dropped.

The report painted a portrait of hapless on-site leadership unaware of potential threats to Mr. Trump’s safety and a culture within the agency of individuals unwilling to take responsibility for those failures. Even after many hours of testimony, the committee said that no one involved in the rally’s security plans could say who made the call to exclude from the security perimeter a set of nearby warehouses, one of which the gunman eventually climbed onto and used as a perch to shoot at Mr. Trump.

The committee report also describes an agency struggling with the basics of operating technology to do its job, with agents who had faulty radios and nonfunctioning drone-detection devices. An agent with only three months’ training on the drone equipment could not get it to work and turned to calling a toll-free tech support hotline “to start troubleshooting with the company,” which took several hours.

According to the newly-released senate report on Wednesday, Secret Service officials had  “credible intelligence” on a threat to Trump before he got on stage at the Butler rally, but the agency failed to take the necessary steps to stop the gunman.  Excerpt below:

  • USSS failed to communicate information about the suspicious person to key personnel and failed to take action to ensure the safety of former President Trump: At approximately 5:44 pm, USSS personnel were notified that local law enforcement observed a suspicious person with a rangefinder near the AGR building. By 5:52 pm, at least eight USSS personnel had been informed. Approximately two minutes before shots were fired, the USSS Security Room, located on the rally grounds, was told that there was an individual on the roof of the AGR building. Shortly before shots were fired, a USSS counter sniper observed local officers running towards the AGR building with guns drawn.

The drone issue was another complete fiasco:

  • USSS’s counter drone system experienced technical problems that left it inoperable for hours: With no backup system, the USSS agent responsible for overseeing the C-UAS capabilities at the July 13 rally called a toll-free 888 tech support hotline “to start troubleshooting with the company,” which took several hours.  That agent had only three months of experience working with that equipment and lacked knowledge about it.

And the agents couldn’t even get radios to work:

  • Several USSS officials reported experiencing technical problems with their radios at the rally, and told the Committee such problems are common for USSS: A USSS Hercules 1 counter sniper was offered a local radio on July 13 but said he did not have time to pick it up because he was occupied fixing technical problems with his USSS radio.  In addition, at the Pittsburgh airport before the motorcade left for the rally, the USSS Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the Pittsburgh field office gave the Lead Agent his radio because the Lead Agent’s radio was not working.

And it gets even worse…

  • USSS failed to provide resources for the July 13 rally that could have enhanced security: USSS denied specific requests for additional Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems capabilities and a Counter Assault Team liaison. A USSS Counter Surveillance Unit – which could have helped patrol the outer perimeter that included the AGR building – was not requested by USSS Advance Leads.

“Our initial findings clearly show a series of multiple failures of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and an inexcusable dereliction of duty,” said Ranking Member Rand Paul (R). “Not only did USSS fail to ensure the AGR roof was adequately covered, they were also aware of a suspicious individual with a rangefinder for at least 27 minutes and did not delay proceedings or remove former President Trump from the stage, even after being informed that the suspicious individual was on the roof of the AGR building. Someone needs to be held accountable for these egregious failures by the USSS, and despite USSS, DHS, FBI, ATF, and other federal agencies’ continued obstruction of our bipartisan investigation, I will continue to push for answers and accountability.”

“What happened on July 13 was an accumulation of errors that produced a perfect storm of stunning failure,” said Chairman Richard Blumenthal (D). “It was a tragedy and completely preventable from the outset. There was both a failure to provide resources – like a working radio, drone detection system, or counter surveillance team – and lack of an effective chain of command. Looking forward, we need structural reform in the agency itself. The Secret Service is filled with dedicated and skilled men and women who serve our country at great risk to themselves and personal sacrifice, and they deserve better leadership. Today’s report is only an interim step, and I look forward to our continuing pursuit of evidence to help understand what went so catastrophically wrong and how we can prevent an event like this from ever happening again.”

CLICK HERE to read the full bipartisan report, just released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee.

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