Secret Service suspended six agents without pay after first Trump assassination attempt

The Secret Service suspended six agents who worked the rally last July in Pennsylvania, where President Trump was shot in the ear by a would-be assassin.

The agents were suspended without pay or benefits ranging from 10 to 42 days, Matt Quinn, Secret Service deputy director, told CBS News.

When the agents returned to work, they were given restricted duty or roles with less operational responsibilities. They were disciplined using a federally mandated process.

“We aren’t going to fire our way out of this,” Mr. Quinn said in an interview Wednesday. “We’re going to focus on the root cause and fix the deficiencies that put us in that situation.”

He said the agency is “totally accountable” for security failures at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He called the shooting an “operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again.”

The agency has since introduced a new fleet of military grade drones and mobile command posts to enhance communication between agents and local law enforcement, Mr. Quinn said.

The country was shocked when a burst of bullets was fired towards Mr. Trump at the rally. At the time, Mr. Trump was poised to accept the party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention.

Bullets shot by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks grazed Mr. Trump’s ear, leaving him bloody on the face as agents ran to cover him. Corey Comperatore, a firefighter attending the rally, was killed in the attack, and two others in the rally crowd were severely injured.

Crooks, who was shooting from atop a building nearby, was killed by Secret Service counter-snipers.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned the same month as the attack under pressure from Congress.

She said she took “full responsibility for the security lapse.”

A report from a bipartisan House task force created to investigate the incident found that the attack was “preventable.”

Evidence the group had obtained showed inadequate planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the rally and “fragmented lines of communication and unclear chains of command” on the day of the event.

However, the final report said the thwarting of the second attempted assassination attempt on Mr. Trump’s life at his Florida golf course in September “demonstrated how properly executed protective measures can foil an attempted assassination.”

On social media, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Florida Republican, said the suspension of the six agents was appropriate.

“Given the shocking security failures that day, this is the absolute bare minimum,” she wrote.