Двухпартийное расследование Сената, опубликованное в среду,revealed multiple failures of the Secret Service prior to the campaign event in July where a gunman shot at former President Donald Trump. According to the interim report from the Senate Committee on National Security and Governmental Affairs, these failures were "foreseeable, avoidable and directly related to the events that resulted in the assassination attempt." The committee found deficiencies in planning, communications, security, and resource allocation.
Democratic Senator Gary Peters, chair of the committee, pointed out that the consequences of these failures were devastating. Among the findings, a lack of clear chain of command between the Secret Service and other security agencies was highlighted, as well as the absence of a plan to secure the building from where the shooter fired.
Agents did not have effective communication, operating on different radio channels that led to loss of communication, while an inexperienced drone operator faced technical difficulties without being able to receive assistance. Communications between security personnel were described as a "telephone game with multiple steps," according to the report.
Additionally, it was determined that the Secret Service was alerted about the presence of an individual on the roof of the building about two minutes before the assailant fired eight shots toward Trump, less than 137 meters away. The committee also interviewed a Secret Service sniper who observed agents running toward the attacker's building with their weapons drawn but did not alert to evacuate Trump from the location.
These findings come just days after the Secret Service released a report summarizing the key conclusions of an internal report on the incident, and before a scheduled hearing by a bipartisan task force in the House of Representatives investigating the shooting. In addition, another attempted attack against Trump earlier this month in Florida is also being investigated.
