Panel recommends major reforms for Secret Service after Trump assassination attempt

An independent review of the Secret Service's failures to protect former President Donald Trump during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania earlier this summer recommended sweeping changes to the agency after the gunman was able to get access to a nearby rooftop and fire several times while he was speaking on stage.

A created by a panel of outside investigators with law enforcement backgrounds brought more scathing reviews of the July incident that is also part of and the agency itself that have found a litany of failures, many of them preventable, that allowed an attack on Trump's life. In short, the panel called on Secret Service to enact major reforms, including a total makeover of its leadership and to shift its mission to almost exclusively focus on its protective duties.

"This is a zero-fail mission, for any failure endangers not only the life of the protectee, but also the fundamentals of our government itself. Today, however, the Secret Service does not perform at the elite levels needed to discharge its critical mission. The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved," the panel wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

"The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission. Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again."

One person in attendance of the rally was killed in the gunfire and two others were injured. Trump's ear was wounded before he was rushed off the stage by his protective detail.

Like , the independent panel identified failures from Secret Service that allowed the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, to get access to the rooftop he fired from by failing to secure the building and not communicating effectively as the situation unfolded. But Thursday's report also focused intensely on failures in the agency's leadership structure.

The authors noted in their report that they were struck by a "lack of ownership" from the agents and supervisors involved in the planning of the event's security. According to the report, responsibility was not taken during the run-up to the Butler rally and the agents involved "have done little in the way of self-reflection in terms of identifying areas of missteps, omissions or opportunities for improvement."

Other investigations have also noted a lack of responsibility being claimed on the days leading up to the shooting and questions about who was taking accountability for the failures afterward. Kimberly Cheatle, the former director of the agency, resigned amid mounting pressure and a crisis of confidence in it but what has been made publicly available from the investigations and interviews has shown a pattern of deflecting blame and unclear accountability.

Thursday's report was the deepest dive yet into cultural issues at Secret Service, where the authors said leadership and staff were struggling to think critically about how to carry out its mission. Personnel operate under the assumption that they effectively had to "do more with less," it said.

"To be clear, the Panel did not identify any nefarious or malicious intent behind this phenomenon, but rather an overreliance on assigning personnel based on categories (former, candidate, nominee) instead of an individualized assessment of risk," the report says.

Secret Service has already made significant changes since the Butler shooting, also receiving a to ramp up security efforts, and has bulked up Trump's protective detail. But it is still facing questions of confidence in its ability to protect the nation's leaders, particularly Trump, who is a particularly polarizing figure. Agents were able to stop a last month at his golf course in Florida, but that a man was able to get so close to him with a gun has raised questions about Secret Service's ability to protect him.

Acting director Ronald Rowe said in a statement that it was already working to fundamentally change itself moving forward.

"We are developing a comprehensive plan aimed at driving a fundamental transformation within the Secret Service to ensure we are appropriately configured to execute our dual integrated mission of protection and complex investigations," Rowe said. "The U.S. Secret Service remains steadfast in our relentless focus on fulfilling our critical mission."