Former President Trump raises his fist as he is carried off stage during a campaign rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pa.
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayrokas has appointed a team of experts to conduct an independent review of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The council includes Janet Napolitano, DHS secretary under Obama; Fran Townsend, homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush; former federal judge Mark Filip, who served as deputy attorney general under Bush; and David Mitchell, former director of the Maryland State Police and former Delaware secretary of public safety and homeland security. Additional experts may be appointed to the council in the coming days.
“We are committed to getting to the truth behind what happened on July 13, and I am grateful to the distinguished members of this independent review who will bring decades of experience in law enforcement and security operations to this important investigation,” Mayorkas said, adding: “This independent review will examine what happened and make actionable recommendations to ensure they carry out their unfailing mission most effectively and prevent something like this from happening again.”
The announcement comes after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday, a shooting that left one person dead and two others critically injured. Secret Service agents killed the gunman.
Mayorkas, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, told NPR last week that “there was really a failure on Saturday.”
The issue is why Trump, despite being given extra Secret Service protection because of the threat of an alleged Iranian plot against him, was shot by the gunman. The role of the Secret Service, as well as whether local police did enough to stop the shooter, and the security arrangements around Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., have also been the subject of scrutiny. The decision not to cover the building where the shooter opened fire — about 130 yards from where Trump was speaking — allowed the gunman to carry out his shooting, former deputy assistant director of the Secret Service Bill Pickle said.
“I think it’s more human error than perimeter,” Pickle said. “To me, perimeter is really just about avoiding the fact that there’s not enough coverage or resources to prevent that from happening.”
Any oversight could include various points where security planning for the rally went wrong. William Basham, a former Secret Service director, said that before such events, a Secret Service advance agent is assigned to stand at the podium where the president is standing and get a full 360-degree view of what needs to be covered. At that point in the process, it was decided not to cover the roof directly where the photo was taken.
“There was a breakdown in communications,” he said. “There was a breakdown in security planning, there should have been someone on that roof. And I don’t think there’s much mystery about what happened here.”
Lawmakers in Congress are conducting their own investigations into the incident. Congress has raised concerns about the Secret Service in the past, and lawmakers are expecting briefings in the coming days. The House Oversight Committee expects to hear from Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle when Congress reconvenes on Monday.
