Secret Service faced host of technical issues, lack of communication at Trump's PA rally: report

A new report released by the Secret Service on Friday, September 20, has revealed that the agency struggled with various communications and technical difficulties with drone capabilities at Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, where the former president survived an assassination attempt. The Secret Service said that it was unable to secure the line of sight to Trump by not securing the roof of the AGR building near the rally ground. It also said that law enforcement failed to communicate to all personnel involved that there was a threat to Trump, according to the report.

Challenges the Secret Service said it faced

The report claimed that no discussion took place with the Secret Service advance staff about placing a local sniper team on the roof. The report was meant as an effort from the Secret Service to be transparent about its failures that day, allowing Thomas Matthew Crooks to open fire.

"A consistent theme gathered from state and local law enforcement personnel who helped secure the Butler rally was the presence of communications deficiencies," an executive summary of the report says, according to ABC News.

Among the "deficiencies" were a lack of resources to share information, a "variety" of communications channels that different law enforcement agencies used, and the agency's failure to convey the Secret Service's "protective needs."

"Some local police entities supporting the Butler venue had no knowledge that there were two separate communications centers on site (i.e., the Secret Service security room and the Butler County Emergency Services Mobile Command Post)," the executive summary said. "As a result, those entities were operating under a misimpression that the Secret Service was directly receiving their radio transmissions."

The report also said that federal personnel were not informed through the radio of a description of a potential assailant or a suspicious individual. Instead of passing information through the Secret Service's radio network, it was being passed through mobile devices in a "fragmented fashion.”

"This failure was especially acute in terms of the [Former President's] protective detail, who were not apprised of how focused state and local law enforcement were in the minutes leading up to the attack on locating the suspicious subject," the executive summary said. "If this information was passed over Secret Service radio frequencies it would have allowed [Former President's] protective detail to determine whether to move their protectee while the search for the suspicious suspect was in progress."

The report said that The Secret Service was not informed that a local agency was providing support. "Neither the Secret Service's Pittsburgh Field Office leadership nor anyone on the agency's advance team were aware of this outreach for support," the report said. "This led to a situation where the local tactical team operating on the second floor of the AGR building—a team that was providing mutual aid support—had no prior contact with Secret Service personnel before the rally."

The Secret Service said that its drone system was experiencing "technical difficulties” that day. The FBI director told the Congress that Crooks was flying a drone outside of the secure perimeter before the rally began.

"It is possible that if this element of the advance had functioned properly, the shooter may have been detected as he flew his drone near the Butler Farm Show venue earlier in the day," the executive summary said.

Further, the report found that the Butler Farm Show site "as seen by the Secret Service and our local law enforcement partners as a challenge." The campaign and local officials apparently selected it “because it was the better venue to accommodate the large number of desired attendees."

"Advance personnel and multiple supervisors with oversight of the security plan at the Butler Farm Show venue recognized line of site concerns," the report found. "However, the security measures to alleviate these concerns were not carried out on July 13, 2024 as intended. There was a lack of detailed knowledge by Secret Service personnel regarding the state or local law enforcement presence that would be present in and around the AGR complex."

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.