The July 13 attempted assassination of Donald Trump was “preventable and should not have happened,” according to a final report from a House task force investigating the two attempts during this year’s presidential campaign.
“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,” the House panel said in its report.
The 180-page report from the House panel investigating the July shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a second assassination attempt in Florida details findings from the task force’s monthslong investigation. The probe included briefings from the Secret Service, FBI and ATF, dozens of interviews with federal, state and local law enforcement, two public hearings and thousands of pages of documents.
The panel’s report said that law enforcement’s response to the Sept. 15 Florida attempt “demonstrated how properly executed protective measures can foil an attempted assassination.”
But the report also underscored significant limitations on the panel’s ability to review or publicize key aspects of other investigations into the incidents. Members said the Justice Department limited their ability to access and incorporate crucial details into their final report.
“This system was onerous and unnecessarily inhibited the ability to share information with Members and the public,” the panel concluded.
Those details included restrictions on the transcript of an ATF interview with the parents of the Pennsylvania shooter on the night of the assassination attempt, in addition to the notes from an FBI interview with Trump himself and members of his campaign. The agencies also had not provided details on the Pennsylvania shooter’s encrypted messaging accounts, the ballistic analysis of shots fired and an evidence log related to both assassination attempts.
And it wasn’t just DOJ. The task force was unable to access details related to the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security and FBI’s review of the second assassination attempt against Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach.
Still, the House report largely aligns with previous congressional and administrative reports, including highlighting the failure to secure the building where the gunman was able to access the roof on July 13. The task force added that the failures by the Secret Service weren’t limited to the day of the shooting, saying “preexisting issues in leadership and training created an environment in which the specific failures identified above could occur.”
In addition to releasing the findings of its investigation, the task force also made a series of recommendations, including that the Secret Service “may benefit” from reducing its number of protectees. Furthermore, the task force said that Congress should consider changes to the Secret Service’s structure, including debating if the agency’s “investigative functions” should remain under the Department of Homeland Security. There is bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for removing the agency as a whole from under the department’s jurisdiction.
The task force also points to possible additional steps for Congress, including requiring the Secret Service have “full ownership” for security planning for high-profile events, more oversight from lawmakers, and requiring Secret Service radio transmissions to be recorded. The report noted that the Secret Service did not arrange or attend any meetings with state and local counterparts on the day of the Butler rally, for example, and that there was not an agreement leading up to the rally in which the law enforcement agency was in charge of securing the building where the gunman ultimately accessed the roof.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. told the task force during its final public hearing that the agency had implemented changes in the wake of the July 13 shooting including increasing the use of drones and counter-drone technology, making structural changes within the Secret Service and increasing Trump’s detail during the final months of the campaign.
Speaker Mike Johnson, in a statement on Tuesday night, said that Congress “will work with the incoming Trump Administration to make these changes to significantly improve the security apparatus of the President, Vice President, and all its protectees.”
“We can never again experience such a dangerous and deadly security failure,” he added.
