Lack of communication, drone issues plagued Secret Service at Trump rally in Pennsylvania: report

Communication problems and technical difficulties with drone capabilities plagued the U.S. Secret Service at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally where an assassin shot former President Donald Trump, according to a new report released Friday by the agency.

The Secret Service said it failed to secure the line of sight to the former president by failing to secure the roof of the AGR building near the Butler Fairgrounds and that law enforcement failed to communicate to all personnel involved that there was a threat to the former president, the report said.

The report also found that there had been no discussions with the intelligence forward headquarters regarding the positioning of a local sniper team atop the AGR roof and that the “lack of due diligence” in constructing the secure perimeter should have been more acutely highlighted.

“It is important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13 and use the lessons learned to ensure that we do not have another failure like this,” US Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said Friday.

The report is the result of a push by the Secret Service to be transparent about the failures that occurred on July 13, when Thomas Matthew Crooks allegedly climbed to the top of a nearby building and opened fire on Trump, hitting him in the ear before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.

“We are at a critical moment in the history of the Secret Service and the history of our country. I have asked the Secret Service to commit to a significant paradigm shift that will redefine how we conduct our protective operations,” Rowe said Friday. “What happened on Sunday demonstrates that the threat environment in which the Secret Service operates is enormous and constantly under threat, and we have been in this heightened and increasingly dynamic threat environment since July 13.”

“A recurring theme gathered from local and state law enforcement who helped secure the Butler rally was the presence of communication deficiencies,” according to a summary of the report released Friday.

The “deficiencies” included a lack of resources to share information, a “variety” of communication channels used by different law enforcement agencies and the agency’s failure to convey the Secret Service’s “protective needs.”

“Some local law enforcement entities supporting the Butler site were unaware that there were two separate communications centers on site (i.e., the Secret Service Security Room and the Butler County Emergency Services Mobile Command Post),” the summary states. “As a result, these entities acted under the mistaken impression that the Secret Service was receiving their radio transmissions directly.”

Federal personnel on scene were not informed by radio of a description of the attacker, nor were vital information received from local law enforcement regarding a suspicious individual on the roof of the AGR complex, the report said.

According to the report, the information was transmitted via mobile devices in a “fragmented” manner instead of being relayed via the secret service’s radio network.

“This failure was particularly serious in terms of [Former President’s] “Protection officers who were not informed of the concentration of local and state law enforcement in the minutes before the attack on the location of the suspect subject,” the summary states. “Had this information been transmitted over Secret Service radio frequencies, it would have allowed [Former President’s] “The protection team must determine whether to move the protected person while the search for the suspect is underway.”

According to the report, the Secret Service was not informed that a local agency was providing support.

“Neither officials in the Pittsburgh field office of the Secret Service nor any members of the agency’s preparedness team were aware of this request for support,” the report states. “This led to a situation where the local tactical team operating on the second floor of the AGR building—a team that was providing mutual support—had no prior contact with Secret Service personnel prior to the gathering.”

There were “no discussions” with the Secret Service regarding the positioning of this local team on the roof of the AGR building, according to the report’s summary.

Another challenge that impacted the Secret Service on July 13 was that its drone system was experiencing “technical difficulties,” the agency said.

The FBI director testified before Congress that Crooks flew a drone outside the secure perimeter before the rally began.

“It is possible that if this element of the advance had functioned properly, the shooter could have been detected while flying his drone near the Butler Farm Show venue earlier in the day,” the summary states.

The report also found that the Butler Farm Show site “is considered a challenge by the Secret Service and our local law enforcement partners.”

It was chosen by the campaign and local officials “because it was the best location to accommodate the large number of participants desired.”

“Vanguard personnel and several supervisors responsible for overseeing the security plan at the Butler Farm Show site acknowledged visibility issues,” the report found. “However, security measures to mitigate these issues were not implemented on July 13, 2024 as planned. Secret Service personnel lacked detailed knowledge regarding the presence of state or local law enforcement that would be present in and around the AGR complex.”

ABC News’ Jack Date contributed to this report