Six Secret Service agents were suspended for failures involving the assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump last July in Butler, Pennsylvania, it was reported.
A Department of Homeland Security review of the shooting found that a series of law enforcement breakdowns created an environment that left Trump exposed to a would-be assassin, ABC News reported Wednesday night.
"The Secret Service does not perform at the elite levels needed to discharge its critical mission," the independent report found, according to ABC News.
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"The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved."
The disciplined agents — each suspended between 10 to 42 days — ranged from supervisory level to line agent level, a source told the news outlet. They were allowed to appeal the penalties, which were handed down in recent months.
"We aren't going to fire our way out of this," said U.S. Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn, who told CBS News that the suspended members, upon their return to work, were put on restricted duty or given posts with less operational responsibility.
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"We're going to focus on the root cause and fix the deficiencies that put us in that situation."
Quinn told CBS News that since the Butler assassination attempt, the Secret Service has introduced a new military grade drones and mobile command posts, which allow agents to communicate directly with local law enforcement.
Trump was shot in the ear, one supporter was killed and two others were wounded during the rally in Butler. The alleged shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot and killed by law enforcement.
Less than two months before he was elected to a second presidential term, Trump in September was victim to another assassination attempt, this time when a man allegedly aimed a rifle at the then-candidate in West Palm Beach, Florida, before being scared off by a Secret Service agent.
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In March, Sean Curran, one of the Secret Service agents who protected Trump in Butler, was sworn in as the new director of the Secret Service. He replaced Ronald Rowe Jr., who had been acting director since July after then-Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned amid the backlash to the agency's breakdowns at the Trump rally.
Two weeks following the Butler shooting, Rowe testified before two Senate committees and said he had traveled to the Pennsylvania site.
"What I saw made me ashamed," he told lawmakers.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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