Secret Service has become ‘bureaucratic, complacent and static,’ report says

An independent panel tasked with investigating the series of security oversights leading up to the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump released its findings on Thursday. The death of one of the attendees at the rally was the first time a civilian died in an area overseen by the U.S. Secret Service, the agency's report said.

The overarching message of the findings is clear — the panel recommended that the U.S. Secret Service undergo "fundamental reform," citing that the agency suffers from "deep flaws" and has "become bureaucratic, complacent and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved," the 52-page report says.

The shooting at Trump's rally over the summer in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired shots that grazed Trumps ear, killed one rallygoer and injured two others, sparked criticisms of the Secret Service's handling of the event's security measures.

The panel dedicated its report to Corey Comperatore , the attendee who was killed at the July rally, as well as James Copenhaver and David Dutch, who suffered serious injuries, and the three men's families. Per the report, Comperatore's death was "the first instance of a non-protectee individual dying within the perimeter of a Secret Service event due to and in the immediate aftermath of an intentional act of violence directed toward a protectee in the Service's history."

Commissioned by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas under the direction of President Joe Biden, the four-person panel included Mark Filip, a former George W. Bush-administration deputy attorney general, David Mitchell, former superintendent of Maryland State Police and former Delaware Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, former Arizona governor and former Homeland Security secretary, and Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush.

Following the assassination attempt, the Secret Service acknowledged its security failures in the event, with its then-director Kimberly A. Cheatle subsequently resigning in July.

"The service has become insular and stale," Napolitano said in an interview, The New York Times reported. "It is time for the service to kind of break out and to reach out beyond its own agency to bring in talent that can really take a fresh look at what it is they do, and how they do it." Per the Times, the agency has only appointed one director over the past century who was not promoted from within.

Here are some key details from the panel's investigation:

The investigation, which spanned from early August to early October 2024, contains over 7,000 relevant documents and included 58 "multi-hour interviews of individuals from the Secret Service, federal, state, and local law enforcement," according to the report.

The panel members traveled to the site of shooting in Butler, where they "conducted detailed surveys of the site of the attempted assassination."

The panel praised the bravery of Secret Service agents, but recommended "the agency should narrow its mission to protection, and should consider minimizing or even eliminating its other law enforcement work (including investigating financial crimes, currently one of its major missions)," Politico reported.

The report concludes that the Secret Service needs "an integrated communications system," according to The Hill , and better cohesion between "the agency and the state and local law enforcement it partners with."

Notably, the panel called for "a mandate that all outdoor events are observed by overhead technology," per BBC .

"Without that reform, the independent review panel believes another Butler can and will happen again," the panel wrote .

NBC News noted that in the footnote of its report, "the panel has encountered some evidence that Trump campaign staff expressed resistance regarding the placement of certain heavy equipment and/or vehicles at the site," which could have been used to mitigate the line of sight risk.

Reactions to the panel's report In response to the report, Mayorkas issued a statement in which he praised the panel members for their work. "We will fully consider the Panel's recommendations and are taking the actions needed to advance the Secret Service's protection mission," his statement, in part, read.