Several Secret Service agents have been placed on leave following an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, according to a report by Real Clear Politics.
The report, citing three sources, indicates that multiple members of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Pittsburgh Field Office have been placed on administrative leave as part of the ongoing investigation into the incident. Other agents have stepped in to cover their duties during this period.
Administrative leave is typically used when a government employee is temporarily relieved of their duties due to an investigation or other concerns. Following the shooting at the Butler rally, former USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her position. Thomas Matthew Crooks, the assailant, managed to evade security, climb onto a roof, and fire several shots at Trump and the crowd. Acting USSS Director Ronald Rowe has since assumed Cheatle’s responsibilities.
Although Crooks missed a fatal shot at Trump, only grazing the GOP nominee’s ear, audience members were not as fortunate. Corey Comperatore was fatally wounded while shielding his wife and daughters from the gunfire, and two other men were critically injured but survived.
In the wake of the incident, Acting Director Rowe faced intense questioning during a Senate hearing on the Secret Service’s security failures at the rally. When Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked if any agents had been relieved of duty, Rowe stated that he would “not rush to judgment” but assured that “people will be held accountable” for the lapses in security.
During his opening remarks at the July 30 hearing, Rowe recounted visiting the rooftop of the AGR building where the assailant fired the shots, expressing his deep disappointment in the security measures. “What I saw made me ashamed,” Rowe said. “As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”
Rowe described the assassination attempt as a “failure of imagination,” acknowledging the need to reassess security assumptions. “We failed to imagine that we actually live in a very dangerous world where people do want to do harm to our protectees,” he stated, emphasizing the importance of challenging existing assumptions about security protocols.