House task force releases final report on Trump assassination attempts

Washington — The House task force investigating the assassination attempts against President-elect Donald Trump released a final report on its probe on Tuesday, presenting a series of recommendations to combat future security failures, including reducing the number of officials it protects during campaign season.

"The Task Force found that the tragic and shocking events in Butler, Pennsylvania were preventable and should not have happened. There was not, however, a singular moment or decision that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to nearly assassinate the former President," the 180-page report said, noting that "various failures … coalesced to create an environment in which the former President — and everyone at the campaign event — were exposed to grave danger."

The House voted to establish the panel following the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, where a gunman opened fire during a rally and a bullet grazed the former president's ear. Secret Service snipers shot and killed the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. The Secret Service came under intense scrutiny following the incident, and its director soon resigned.

The task force, made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats, also looked into a second assassination attempt on Sept. 15 in West Palm Beach, Florida, which was foiled. Trump was golfing when a Secret Service agent discovered a man with a rifle who was waiting along the tree line of the course.

What the report says

Over the course of the investigation, the task force said it conducted 46 interviews, reviewed 18,000 pages of documents and visited the incident sites in Butler and West Palm Beach.

The panel found that the "failures" that led to the July 13 incident were "not isolated to the campaign event itself." The lawmakers noted that "preexisting issues in leadership and training created an environment" in which the failures could occur, like giving significant responsibilities to Secret Service personnel with little to no experience in advanced planning roles. 

"The events of July 13, 2024, were tragic and preventable, and the litany of related security failures are unacceptable," the report says, acknowledging that the Secret Service's mission "allows no margin for error."

The task force made three dozen recommendations, including reducing the number of individuals it protects. The lawmakers also said Congress should examine whether the Secret Service should still be involved in investigating fraud and financial crimes.  

"Congress must consider whether the Secret Service's investigative obligations can effectively coexist with its primary protective mission, and whether the agency's investigative functions should remain within the Department of Homeland Security," the report said. 

"The number of individuals being protected has greatly expanded, a resource demand which becomes further taxed during the longer and more intensive modern presidential campaign seasons," it said, noting that the Secret Service also protects foreign dignitaries during the U.N. General Assembly in New York City in September, which comes at the height of the campaign season. "As a result, Congress, DHS, and the USSS should jointly consider the protective role the USSS plays for foreign leaders and consider whether such duties can be transferred or abrogated in order to focus on the USSS's primary duty: to protect the President and other critical U.S. leaders." 

It also recommended that Secret Service consolidate the plans of all law enforcement entities working an event; fill gaps with its own personnel when local counterparts are unable to provide adequate security; identify all potential lines of sight vulnerabilities; require counter-surveillance assets for all large outdoor events; and address inadequate training. Other recommendations included reviewing protocols for identifying security breaches during golf outings and using a specific type of vehicle, which was redacted in the report, on the golf course.

The panel also called on Congress to review the agency's financial and personnel resources, recommending that it take a look at "reducing the pace of travel, ensuring overtime is properly compensated, and giving incentives for veteran agents to stay with the USSS beyond minimum retirement ages." 

While the panel's investigation has wrapped, the task force encouraged relevant committees in Congress to work to address "important questions" that it was unable to examine fully. On the top of that list, the panel said, are the motivations of the shooter and would-be shooter, which the panel said "remain largely unknown."

Before wrapping its investigation, the task force held its final hearing last week with testimony from Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, who acknowledged the agency's "abject failure" in the July shooting. Rowe outlined a series of changes he had implemented at the agency since the assassination attempt.