The Secret Service has “deep flaws” that allowed the attack at the Trump campaign rally, according to an independent panel that reviewed the July assassination attempt against then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The panel also called for “fundamental reform” of the agency to fulfill its mission of protecting top government officials worldwide.
The independent review panel noted in a letter signed by all four members that it had discovered “numerous mistakes” during its investigation that resulted in the attempted assassination of Trump, but also “deeper systemic issues that must be addressed with urgency.”
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” the members said. “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
The panel dedicated its work to Corey Comperatore, who was killed in the shooting, and James Copenhaver and David Dutch, who were injured, as well as their families.
“These actions will be responsive not only to the security failures that led to the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt but, importantly, to what the Independent Review Panel describes as systemic and foundational issues that underlie those failures,” the members said.
The group also cited “deeper concerns” it had discovered regarding the Secret Service, such as a “troubling lack of critical thinking” by Secret Service personnel in the days leading up to and following the assassination attempt, “corrosive cultural attitudes” regarding resources, and a “lack of clarity” regarding who has security ownership of a protectee’s site.
It criticized Secret Service leadership for what the panel claimed was a “insufficiently experienced-based approach” by Trump’s detail regarding the choice of agents to carry out security-critical tasks and a failure to assume responsibility for security planning and execution at the Butler rally.
The breakdowns “reveal deep flaws in the Secret Service, including some that appear to be systemic or cultural,” according to the report.
It recommended new Secret Service leadership with outside agency experience and a return to the agency’s “core protective mission” to address the problems the panel had identified.
“The Secret Service must be the world’s leading governmental protective organization,” according to the report. “The events at Butler on July 13 demonstrate that, currently, it is not.”
This comes as President Donald Trump nominated Sean Curran, the head of his personal Secret Service security detail, to serve as director of the U.S. Secret Service.
Curran, one of several quick-thinking agents who hurried onstage to defend Trump during an attempted assassination on July 13, was already anticipated to be appointed to the role.
On Wednesday, Trump called the appointment of Curran an “honor” in a Truth Social post.
“Sean is a Great Patriot, who has protected my family over the past few years, and that is why I trust him to lead the Brave Men and Women of the United States Secret Service,” the president wrote.
“He is brilliant leader, who is capable of directing and leading operational security plans for some of the most complex Special Security Events in the History of our Country, and the World. He proved his fearless courage when he risked his own life to help save mine from an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania. I have complete and total confidence in Sean to make the United States Secret Service stronger than ever before,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump taps Sean Curran, the agent who rushed on stage during Butler assassination attempt, to lead Secret Service https://t.co/wRE9QBdVbm pic.twitter.com/NQ2bTChm4p
— David Lester Straight (@DavidLesterr_) January 23, 2025
Trump also announced late on Wednesday that he was nominating Andrew F. Puzder to become the next U.S. ambassador to the European Union.