Questions the Secret Service still need to answer a year after the Trump assassination attempt in Butler

It’s been a year since the first attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Yet, many questions still remain unanswered about the Secret Service’s conduct both on that day, and since. 

Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released on Sunday his final report on the Butler investigation.

Paul’s report is full of a ‘disturbing pattern of denials, mismanagement, and missed warning signs’ from the Senate investigation into the assassination attempt. 

‘What happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, was not just a tragedy—it was a scandal. The United States Secret Service failed to act on credible intelligence, failed to coordinate with local law enforcement, and failed to prevent an attack that nearly took the life of a then-former president,’ said Chairman Paul. 

‘Despite those failures, no one has been fired,’ Paul noted.

‘This was not a single lapse in judgment. It was a complete breakdown of security at every level—fueled by bureaucratic indifference, a lack of clear protocols, and a shocking refusal to act on direct threats. We must hold individuals accountable and ensure reforms are fully implemented so this never happens again,’ Paul added.

The July 13, 2024 attempt on Trump’s life came during a rally at the Farm Show Grounds in Butler, where 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks perched atop a building just beyond the perimeter gates. 

Crooks was able to fire off a series of bullets aimed at Trump’s head – one of which grazed his ear – before officers took him down.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa

Since the incident, it has become apparent that four counter-sniper teams were in place on the day, two of them being from the Secret Service, and two from local law enforcement.

At the time of the incident, Secret Service blamed local police for failing to secure the rooftop from which Crooks attempted to assassinate then-former President Donald Trump, insisting it was outside the perimeter the federal agency was tasked with protecting.

Carson Swick – a former Pennsylvania campaign reporter for the New York Post who now works at the Baltimore Sun – told the Daily Mail that he thought it was odd that the rooftop on which Crooks was perched that day was not occupied by a Secret Service sniper during the rally. 

‘I know on the day of the shooting they had some people on different roofs, but not obviously, on that one,’ Swick noted. 

Swick also added that by the time of Trump’s return rally in Butler just days before the 2024 election which he also covered, there were no rooftops vacant the second time around.  

However, during the July rally, securing and patrolling the factory grounds of AGR International Inc. — located about 150 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking on July 13 — was the responsibility of local Pennsylvania police, Secret Service representative Anthony Gugliemi said last year, according to the New York Times.

The Secret Service was only tasked with covering the grounds where Trump’s rally took place, with local police being recruited to assist with those efforts and secure the area outside the rally.

The oversight during the first Trump rally in Butler was one that should not have happened, and ultimately ‘the buck stops with the Secret Service,’ former FBI Supervisory Special Agent John Nantz, also now a Townhall columnist, told the Daily Mail. 

‘It’s not accurate to blame local law enforcement, because they’re always going to give deference to the Secret Service or a federal agency that requests it,’ Nantz also added. 

A map detailing how the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life was carried out

Swick noted to the Daily Mail that at the time, the Secret Service did not seem to have properly covered Trump during his exit from the rally venue, another apparent failure.

The iconic ‘fight fight fight’ ushered by Trump as he exited the stage mere minutes after the bullet from Crooks grazed his ear was another moment that appeared to leave him exposed, Swick recalled.

This week, it became known that six secret service agents were briefly suspended for security failures tied to last year’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Deputy Director of the Secret Service Matt Quinn told CBS News this week that the suspended employees were given penalties ranging from 10 to 42 days of leave. 

When the suspended employees returned to work, he said, they were given restricted roles with less operational responsibility.

‘We are laser focused on fixing the root cause of the problem,’ Mr. Quinn said Wednesday, adding that disciplinary act was carried out according to a federally mandated process.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told the Daily Mail in a statement that he was ‘glad’ to hear that more Secret Service employees are being held accountable.

But he says the agency’s ‘failure’ to protect Trump at the Butler campaign rally revealed the ‘need for changes at the agency, starting with leadership at the top.’ 

He noted that former Director Kimberly Cheatle was ‘forced to resign’ and that there should be more accountability to come. 

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage by U.S. Secret Service agents after being grazed by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania

Police snipers return fire after shots were fired while Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump was speaking at a campaign event in Butler on Saturday, July 13, 2024

Then – Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, talks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 9, 2025.

Now-former Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last July shortly after the assassination attempt. 

Two days after the incident, Cheatle noted in a media release issued by the Secret Service that ‘personnel on the ground moved quickly during the incident, with our counter sniper team neutralizing the shooter and our agents implementing protective measures to ensure the safety of [then] former president Donald Trump.’

Per Senator Rand Paul’s report released Sunday, it has become apparent that Cheatle’s testimony regarding no Secret Service asset requests being denied for the Butler rally was false.

A U.S. Secret Service report released just days before the 2024 election confirmed that ‘multiple operational and communications gaps preceded the July 13 attempted assassination.’

The Secret Service also described some of the gaps as ‘deficiency of established command and control, lapses in communication, and a lack of diligence by agency personnel,’ while also noting that ‘the accountability process [was] underway.’

Dan Bongino – who now serves as Deputy Director of the FBI and formerly spent 11 years as a Secret Service agent – said last year that Butler was a ‘apocalyptic security failure’ and called for a full house-cleaning of the upper leadership ranks in the Secret Services D.C. headquarters.

Yet, the attempt on the now President’s life last July was not the only near miss that came his way in 2024.

Would-be assassin Ryan Routh managed to get close to Trump last September as he partook in a round of golf at his Trump International Golf Club property in West Palm Beach, Florida. Routh was arrested after he was seen holding a rifle through a fence by a Secret Service agent.

Yet, Nantz tells the Daily Mail Routh shouldn’t have even gotten that close.

‘I have heard that … it wasn’t a scheduled movement, okay. Well, I get that, but I’m not really sure I’m satisfied with that explanation,’ Nantz noted.

‘I think probably at that time, you’re still talking about resource allocation problems,’ Nantz added.

Limited resources were also given as a cause for the lapse in Trump’s July 13 Butler rally security as Trump was not the time yet the official GOP Presidential nominee. The July Butler Rally took place days before the Republican National Convention where Trump was formerly nominated for his re-election bid.

By September, Trump was allegedly supposed to have already had a Presidential-level detail.