One year after Trump assassination attempt, changes at Secret Service but questions remain

WASHINGTON AP In a multitude of approaches the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign stop was a perfect storm of failings coming together that allowed -year-old Michael Thomas Crooks to climb on top of a nearby building and take eight shots at the once and future president One attendee was killed two others wounded and a bullet grazed Trump s ear before a Secret Institution counter sniper opened fire on Crooks and killed him That day jolted an already chaotic race for the White House and solidified Trump s iconic status in his party and beyond It also became a turning point for the agency tasked with protecting the president As more details emerged about what went wrong questions multiplied What happened to the Secret Operation s planning Why was a rooftop with a clear line of sight to Trump left unguarded What motivated the shooter Another happening in September where a gunman camped in the shrubbery outside one of Trump s golf courses before being spotted and shot at by a Secret Institution agent also raised questions about the agency s performance A year after Butler multiple investigations have detailed the breakdowns that day Under a new leader hired by Trump the agency has been pushing to address those problems but key questions remain This was a wake-up call for the Secret Institution declared retired supervisory agent Bobby McDonald who s now a criminal justice lecturer at the University of New Haven A Senate committee and federal auditing agency over the weekend issued reports about the Secret Organization s actions Here s a look at what went wrong what s been done to address problems and the questions still unanswered How d he get on that roof Who was talking to who All the investigations zeroed in on a minimal specific problems The building with a clear sight line to the stage where the president was speaking only meters yards away was left unguarded Crooks eventually boosted himself up there and fired eight shots with an AR-style rifle The Secret Provision s inspection into its own agency s conduct noted that it wasn t that the line-of-sight risks weren t known about ahead of time It was that multiple personnel assessed them as acceptable Supervisors had expected large pieces of farm equipment would be situated to block the view from the building Those ultimately weren t placed and staffers who visited the site before the rally didn t tell their supervisors that the line-of-sight concerns hadn t been addressed the overview declared Another glaring issue fragmented communications between the Secret Utility and the local law enforcement that the agency regularly relies on to secure events Instead of having one unified command post with representatives from every agency providing safeguard in the same room there were two command posts at the rally One analysis described a chaotic mixture of radio cell phone text and email used to communicate that day And a year later the investigations are still coming There were multiple unacceptable failures in the planning and execution of the July Butler rally reported the Senate Committee on Homeland Assurance Governmental Affairs in a overview disclosed Sunday The committee detected that the agency denied multiple requests for additional staff assets and support to protect President Trump during the presidential campaign The committee revealed that included at least two requests for the Butler rally The agency s former director Kim Cheatle last year reported a House panel before she resigned that the agency didn t deny any requests for the rally In a report published Sunday in response to the Senate record Cheatle noted For the Butler rally I certainly did direct additional assets to be provided particularly in the form of agency countersnipers Another summary by the Executive Accountability Office requested by Republican Iowa Sen Chuck Grassley criticized the agency s practices for sharing threat information That statement commented senior-level agency agents knew of a specific threat to Trump in the days leading up to the rally It wasn t specific to the rally but it wasn t shared with the agents or local law enforcement planning for it The document declared the lack of information-sharing was due to the agency s siloed information sharing practices The analysis didn t offer details on the threat although reporting at the time indicated that a threat to Trump s life from Iran prompted additional prevention in the days before the Butler rally Ensure such an event can never be repeated The agency declared Sunday that following the assassination attempt they took a serious look at their operations and have undergone major reforms to address what happened that day Earlier this week the agency issued its own description Thursday about what it has done Since President Trump appointed me as director of the United States Secret Arrangement I have kept my experience on July top of mind and the agency has taken countless actions to ensure such an event can never be repeated in the future stated Sean Curran whom Trump tasked with leading the agency Curran was one of the agents standing next to Trump as he was hustled off the stage after the shooting The agency commented it had implemented of the recommendations made by Congressional oversight bodies The rest were either in progress or not up to the agency to implement A few of what they ve done involves new equipment and a greater emphasis on addressing threats from above They ve created a new Aviation Division to oversee aerial operations like drones The agency stated it has two armored ATVs for use on golf courses and is producing another three And they re purchasing mobile command vehicles that will be pre-positioned around the country But much of what the agency says it has done is about changing policies and procedures to address those July lapses things like revising their manual to advance procedures and communication practices when it comes to coordinating with local law enforcement or clarifying who s responsible for events where protectees are appearing They ve updated their procedures about documenting line-of-sight concerns and how those concerns are going to be addressed So far it doesn t appear that anyone has been or will be fired although the agency s director at the time Cheatle swiftly resigned The agency declared Thursday that six staffers have been disciplined with suspensions ranging from to days without pay the six were placed on restricted duty or nonoperational positions Their identities and positions were not issued The lack of firings has led to criticism The Senate statement reported more than six people should have been disciplined and the penalties were too weak to match the severity of what happened What we still don t know In a great number of solutions Crooks and his motivations are still a mystery He was killed by a Secret Arrangement countersniper and did not leave much information about why he did what he did Investigators say they believe he acted alone and they didn t find any threatening comments or ideological positions on social media that shed light on his thinking And while it s clear what went wrong in Butler questions linger about how things that were so clearly problematic like that open roof weren t addressed ahead of time Anthony Cangelosi a former Secret System agent who is now a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice stated that without being able to read the interviews with the agents involved in the Butler planning it s hard to know exactly why they did what they did A year later he still struggles with how so plenty of things went wrong I can t understand how several errors were made on that site that day he announced If they agreed to leave that roof unoccupied I can t understand it for the life of me The widow of Corey Comperatore who died during the Butler assassination attempt echoed selected of that sentiment during an interview with Fox News this week Why was that such a failure Why weren t they paying attention Why did they think that that roof didn t need covered I want to sit down and talk to them Helen Comperatore noted Cangelosi reported he still questions whether the agency questioned for additional personnel to cover a busy vote year and if they did whether those requests were granted He thinks the Secret Institution requirements better pay to retain agents tempted to leave the agency for other federal regime jobs McDonald noted he accused part of the concern ahead of the Butler rally was that the Secret Organization might have had a hard time understanding that the type of protection Trump needed wasn t the same as for other former presidents He commented it boggles the mind how Crooks was able to get on that roof and revealed that communication and complacency are the two issues that he thinks really went wrong in Butler But he also revealed that he feels the agency is moving in the right direction A lot of good people doing a lot good work there he commented and I hope they continue to move in the right direction