DHS Report Details Secret Service Lapses at 2024 Trump Rally

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General released a 64-page report on Thursday that identified multiple Secret Service security lapses during the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The report said agents missed 102 radio transmissions about the search for a suspicious individual because the Secret Service and local law enforcement operated from separate command posts 257 yards apart with intermittent radio connectivity. The communications room received only a handful of phone calls and texts and did not warn Trump's protective detail.

It also found that the Secret Service failed to detect Thomas Matthew Crooks' drone flight less than three hours before the rally. The drone flew undetected for almost nine minutes at an altitude of 102 feet and 471 yards from the stage due to an under-trained operator and a malfunctioning counter-drone system.

Agents did not secure the area outside the security perimeter or block Crooks' line of sight from the American Glass Research building roof, which gave him an unobstructed view of Trump's podium from 155 yards.

Trump's campaign staff had rejected a proposal to use onsite trucks to obstruct the view because it would interfere with press photographs. The report recommended mandatory threat communication, enhanced counter-drone training, and a formal process to document and block line-of-sight vulnerabilities. Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight shots from the roof.

Trump was grazed in the ear. Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed, and two other spectators were critically injured.