The assassination attempt that injured former President Donald Trump in Butler, PA in July, was enabled by “numerous mistakes” by the Secret Service and “specific failures and breakdowns,” an independent, bipartisan review set out Thursday.
The panel of four former senior law enforcement and government officials cautioned that another catastrophic security lapse could transpire if the U.S. Secret Service does not immediately undertake “fundamental reform.”
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“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static,” the panel wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the organization, as reported by NBC News.
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” they added. “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.” The NBC News report went on to state:
The panel conducted fifty-eight multi-hour interviews of individuals from the Secret Service, federal, state, and local law enforcement and reviewed over 7,000 documents, according to its report. The Panel members and staff also traveled to Butler where it surveyed the site of the attempted assassination.
The group said they identified “deep flaws in the Secret Service, including some that appear to be systemic or cultural” including a “lack of critical thinking among Secret Service personnel” and agents’ unwillingness to “speak up” regarding potential threats.
The review made clear money was not the sole cause of the mistakes and root-and-branch reform for the entire organization must follow.
It stated the agency’s failure go beyond spending. “Even an unlimited budget would not, by itself, remediate many of the failures of July 13,” it said.