The acting director of the U.S. Secret Service stressed today that the agency is “reorganizing and reinventing” its culture and the way it operates in the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.
Members of a bipartisan House task force investigating the attempt on Trump’s life questioned Ronald Rowe about how agency officials could have ignored glaring security vulnerabilities that led to the July 13 shooting at a Republican rally in Pennsylvania.
Rowe promised accountability for what he called the agency’s “abject failure” to secure the rally in Butler, where a gunman opened fire from a nearby building. Trump was shot in the ear, a rallygoer was killed and two others were wounded.
Another assassination attempt two months later added to the agency’s woes. The gunman waited for hours for Trump to show up at his Florida golf course, but a Secret Service agent foiled the attack after spotting the firearm stuck in bushes.
The task force has been investigating both attempts, but it was the July 13 shooting that dominated today’s hearing.
The inquiry is part of a series of investigations and reports that have faulted the agency for planning and communication failures. The agency’s previous director resigned and the Secret Service stepped up protections for Trump before the Republican won the November election.
Rowe has been repeatedly questioned by lawmakers who have expressed astonishment about how such obvious problems, including, in the case of the Trump assassination attempt, communication difficulties between the Secret Service and local authorities helping to protect events, were allowed to persist.
This is the task force’s second public hearing and the first time Rowe has addressed its members in public. The panel has until Dec. 13 to release its final report, though Crow said it could be released Thursday or in the coming days.
The task force conducted 46 transcribed interviews, participated in more than a dozen briefings and reviewed more than 20,000 documents.
Members also visited the scene of both attempted murders and went to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, to examine evidence.
Rowe said Thursday that the agency’s internal investigation, the findings of which were released last month, found failures by several employees.
He also said the quality of the pre-emptive work — the people who assess the locations of events in advance — did not meet the agency’s standards. And he said those who failed to do their job would be held accountable.
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