Six Secret Service agents have been suspended following what has been called a security failure, the assassination attempt against President Donald Trump nearly a year ago in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn told CBS News the agency takes full accountability for what occurred on July 13 last year when a lone shooter grazed Trump’s ear with a bullet, injuring two others and killing 50-year-old firefighter and father Corey Comperatore at the Trump rally.
“We aren’t going to fire our way out of this,” Quinn said. The suspensions range from 10 to 42 days without pay and benefits, but no firings. “We’re going to focus on the root cause and fix the deficiencies that put us in that situation.”
The agents’ job levels range from supervisory to line agent level. Upon return, Quinn said the agents would be assigned to restricted roles and duties with reduced responsibility.
“Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again,” he told CBS News, also sharing that one of the solutions has been bringing in new military grade drones and mobile command posts to have constant communication with local law enforcement — what was seen as one of the key operational failures in Butler.
But Butler wasn’t the only incident last summer that almost cost Trump his life. A few weeks later, the Secret Service received more backlash after an assassination attempt was made on Trump again, this time in West Palm Beach, Florida. Though it was prevented, the agency and its then-director, Kimberly Cheatle, underwent multiple congressional hearings and investigations. Cheatle ultimately resigned.
In a 180-page bipartisan House task force investigation report published last December, its members concluded that the shooting in Butler was “preventable,” they found that “The various failures in planning, execution, and leadership on and before July 13, 2024, and the preexisting conditions that undermined the effectiveness of the human and material assets deployed that day, coalesced to create an environment in which the former President — and everyone at the campaign event — were exposed to grave danger."