Six Secret Service agents were suspended without pay or benefits after an attempted assassination of President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024.
Matt Quinn, the deputy director of the agency, informed CBS News on Wednesday that they were not going to resolve the issue by terminating personnel, but emphasized their commitment to addressing the fundamental cause of the problem.
Quinn explained to the news outlet that the agents faced penalties ranging from 10 to 42 days of unpaid leave and were assigned to limited roles with diminished responsibilities upon their return. He noted that these disciplinary actions adhered to a federally mandated procedure.
The agency encountered significant backlash following the security lapse that allowed gunman Thomas Crooks to fire shots toward the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, father, and husband who was present at the event, lost his life. President Trump was grazed by a bullet, and two other individuals sustained injuries from the gunfire. Crooks was ultimately shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
“The Secret Service is fully accountable for the events in Butler,” Quinn stated to CBS. “Butler represented an operational failure, and we are currently dedicated to ensuring that such an incident does not occur again.” He also mentioned that the agency is concentrating on identifying the root cause of the operational failure and rectifying the deficiencies that led to the situation.
Following the Butler rally, Quinn indicated that the Secret Service has introduced a new fleet of military-grade drones and mobile command posts to improve radio communication with local law enforcement, as reported by Fox News.
The agency faced renewed scrutiny weeks later after a second assassination attempt on Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida. Although this attempt was successfully thwarted, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned, and the agency became the subject of numerous investigations and congressional hearings.
In December, a bipartisan House task force published a 180-page report stating that the Butler incident was “preventable,” highlighting “preexisting” deficiencies in leadership and training that “created an environment” favorable to security failures.
The report further indicated that the Secret Service did not effectively coordinate with local law enforcement.
Last week, Trump made comments regarding the government’s investigation into one of the assassination attempts against him from the previous year.
In response to a reporter’s question on Friday, the president expressed that he is “very satisfied” with the FBI’s investigation into the assassination attempt against him in Pennsylvania.
Trump conveyed his thoughts to Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese on Thursday, effectively dispelling months of speculation and uncertainty surrounding the case. Until this point, Trump had refrained from fully endorsing the FBI, as reported by The Daily Caller.
In a prior interview with Fox News, he acknowledged that certain aspects of the case felt unsettling. “I’m relying on my people to inform me about it … The Secret Service, they assure me, is fine. But it’s somewhat difficult to believe,” he remarked.
In March, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino informed Fox News that there was no evidence of a significant conspiracy against Trump. “In some of these instances, the ‘there’ you’re searching for simply isn’t present. I understand the concerns — I get it. But it’s not there. If it were, we would have informed you,” Bongino stated.
That same month, Daily Caller’s Reese questioned White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about whether Trump was content with Bongino’s response.
Leavitt replied, “Well, in the context of your question, you answered your own question with the president’s own words, and I’ll leave it at that.”
In May, Bongino announced investigations into several high-profile cases involving “potential public corruption.”
These cases, which seemed to have been overlooked during former President Joe Biden’s administration, are now receiving attention.