Secret Service Puts 5 on Leave in Trump Shooting Probe

At least five members of the U.S. Secret Service have been placed on administrative leave as a result of the agency's investigation into the security failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last month in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to multiple media reports.

The suspended agency members are from the Pittsburgh Field Office, RealClearPolitics reports. Other agents who were also involved in the Butler security plan remain on the job, RCP reports.

While employees on administrative leave typically still receive pay and benefits, the decision is left to the discretion of the agency's leadership.

CBS News reported that the head of the Pittsburgh office is among those placed on administrative leave.

The agency's internal affairs division is continuing to investigate how the would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to access a rooftop close to where Trump was speaking and fire eight shots, including one that grazed the Republican presidential nominee's right ear, before being killed by law enforcement.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi would not confirm the officials were placed on leave, telling CBS he would not comment on a personnel matter. But he said the internal "mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures, and factors that led to this operational failure."

The Secret Service "holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action," Guglielmi added.

One Secret Service agent who requested anonymity to speak candidly blamed the security failures at Trump's Butler rally on Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe and other top agency leaders, saying their decisions prior to the July 13 event set the agents in the field up for failure.

"Leadership's mismanagement of technology and personnel are what led to the failures in Butler, but they are not the ones being held accountable," a Secret Service source told RealClearPolitics.

Bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill led former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign less than two weeks after the shooting, but lawmakers and those in the Secret Service community are demanding more accountability following the agency's worst security failure since the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

• FBI Fires Back at Charge of Obstruction in Butler Probe
• Whistleblower: Key USSS Team Not at July 13 Trump Rally