New Secret Service Director Announces Changes in Wake of Trump Assassination Attempt

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is covered by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. Evan Vucci/AP Photo

The Secret Service is making changes in the wake of the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, the agency’s new acting director announced on July 30.

Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said he had traveled to the site of the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president was shot, allegedly by a man who fired from the roof of a nearby building.

Mr. Rowe said what he saw while lying in a prone position on the roof of that building made him feel “ashamed.”

“As a career law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured,” he told two U.S. Senate committees on Capitol Hill.

“To prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future, I directed our personnel to ensure every event site security plan is thoroughly vetted by multiple experienced supervisors before it is implemented.”

Mr. Rowe said he believed that agents had plenty of time to plan for the rally and called what happened a “failure on multiple levels.”

In addition to former President Trump, whose ear was clipped by one of the bullets fired at him, three others were also struck. Former fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed while trying to protect his wife and daughter, and the other two shooting victims were hospitalized but have since been discharged.

Internal Investigation

Mr. Rowe assumed the acting director position after Kimberly Cheatle, the presidential appointee who was serving as director, stepped down on July 23 amid calls for her to resign.

Ms. Cheatle, in remarks before Congress before she resigned, said the assassination attempt represented the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure in decades.”

Echoing that acknowledgment on July 30, Mr. Rowe said he had launched an internal investigation and would hold Secret Service employees accountable if they were found to have violated agency protocols.

“They will be held to our table of penalties, which will include up to termination,” he said.

As of yet, however, no Secret Service employees have been relieved of duty, which Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned.

“Isn’t the fact that a former president was shot, that a good American is dead, that other Americans were critically wounded—isn’t that enough mission failure for you to say that the person who decided that that building should not be in the security perimeter probably ought to be stepped down?” Mr. Hawley asked during one particularly heated exchange.

Mr. Rowe replied that he would prefer to allow the investigation to play out before taking that kind of action.

“I will not rush to judgment,” the acting director said, vowing to hold employees accountable “with integrity.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) agreed with Mr. Hawley that accountability would likely require more than just an investigation.

“I think we need individual accountability here and people need to be held responsible—in fact, lose their jobs, if necessary—to send a message,” Mr. Graham said.

Security Failings

Lawmakers from both parties said the Secret Service should have secured the rooftop of the nearby building or made sure that other law enforcement officers secured the rooftop.

Snipers spotted the shooter, who was identified by authorities as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, 1 hour and 45 minutes before shots were fired, according to texts disclosed this week, but no officers detained the suspicious person, according to officials.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said Mr. Crooks registered to attend the rally on July 6—just three days after it was announced. That same day, he performed a web search to learn how far Lee Harvey Oswald was located from President John F. Kennedy when he assassinated him.

Investigators believe that Mr. Crooks visited the rally site three times over the course of the following week—once on July 7 for planning purposes and then twice on the day of the event. A little more than two hours before he fired his weapon, he flew a drone overhead for 11 minutes—a feat that law enforcement officers were unable to accomplish themselves.

Mr. Rowe attributed that failure to a cellular “connectivity challenge.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked how it was that the suspected shooter did not appear to have any trouble connecting his own drone to the internet.

Mr. Rowe said that he had “no explanation.”

As for how Mr. Crooks managed to bring a rifle onto the site undetected, Mr. Abbate said he may have broken the rifle down and stowed it in his backpack.

“We don’t have conclusive evidence of that,” he said.

One reported failure that Mr. Rowe refuted was the claim that the Secret Service did not meet with local law enforcement prior to the event to discuss security. According to the acting director, agency personnel met with Butler Emergency Services Unit team leader Jason Woods on the day of the event.

“We were supposed to get a face-to-face briefing with the Secret Service members whenever they arrived, and that never happened,” Mr. Woods previously told ABC News.

Mr. Rowe also denied that Secret Service personnel were redirected to secure a nearby event at which First Lady Jill Biden was slated to speak.

“There was one airport agent that actually went on the manpower request for the Trump detail,” he said. “They handled the arrival at the airport.”

Shooter’s Social Media Possibly Identified

One new piece of information revealed at the hearing was that the FBI may have identified one of the suspect’s social media accounts.

The account posted more than 700 comments from 2019 to 2020, although Mr. Abbate said investigators are not certain that it belonged to Mr. Crooks.

“Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes, to espouse political violence, and are described as extreme in nature,” he said.

Mr. Abbate would not specify which social media platform the comments were made on prior to verifying its connection to Mr. Crooks. Nonetheless, he said the FBI is analyzing the content for insight into the shooter’s motive and mindset at the time of the incident.

Investigators have also identified a Gab account that they believe may be linked to Mr. Crooks.

Moving Forward

Since taking the reins last week, Mr. Rowe said he had already started stepping up Secret Service security protocols to ensure that an incident such as the July 13 shooting would not happen again.

One key change is that the agency will roll out a “common operating platform” to allow local law enforcement a direct communication channel to Secret Service agents on the scene. Many officials have pointed to the breakdown of communications between the forces assigned to secure the president’s event as partially responsible for the shooting.

Mr. Rowe said the Secret Service is also expanding its use of drones “to ensure the people and places we protect are safe.”

He said the agency has already strengthened protection for all protectees and is conducting threat assessments for all of those people. It has also started protecting six new people, including Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who was recently tapped to be former President Trump’s running mate, and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to whom officials had previously denied protection on multiple occasions.

Mr. Rowe also said officials are working to make sure that the agency’s protection of the Democratic National Convention is strong and effective, following the protection of the Republican National Convention.

“I am immensely proud of the selfless dedication of our employees to the mission,“ he said. “Every day, across the globe, the men and women [of the Secret Service] answer the call to protect our nation’s leaders, and the standard is no fail for a reason.”

The FBI, U.S. House of Representatives, and Pennsylvania State Police are also investigating the assassination attempt, as is the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.

Jackson Richman contributed to this report.