Logo

Two days before former President Donald Trump was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., the Secret Service conducted a security walkthrough that local law enforcement officers later described as disjointed, a damning interim report by a bipartisan House task force revealed.

“Butler [Emergency Services Unit] ESU Commander Ed Lenz testified to the Task Force that ‘there was no structure to it. There was no, “Hey, let’s all talk and figure out what we have to do.” It was really just a bunch of people sort of milling around the site,'” read the 53-page report released Monday.

“‘It did not seem organized at all.’”

Secret Service personnel toured the rally stage, the perimeter and the spectator area on July 11 alongside Pennsylvania State Police, Butler County ESU and others — and Lenz wasn’t alone in his assessment.


  Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pa. AP Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pa. AP

Other “witnesses who participated in the walkthrough told the Task Force it was disorganized,” the report explained.

Acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe later acknowledged before the panel that the protective agency had been operating under the assumption that local law enforcement was going to secure the AGR complex from which gunman Matthew Thomas Crooks, 20, fired off eight shots at the July 13 rally.

“There clearly was not that follow-up to make sure,” Rowe added.

separate report by an independent review panel commissioned by President Biden came out last week and noted that the site agent tasked with coordinating rally prep work with the local Pittsburgh field office had only graduated from the Secret Service’s training academy in 2020.

The unnamed agent had “minimal previous site advance work” under their belt and had only joined Trump’s detail last year, per that report.


  The deadly shooting at former President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 was a “preventable” incident. AP The deadly shooting at former President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 was a “preventable” incident. AP

The so-called “mismanaged walkthrough” was one of a litany of security failures the bipartisan panel identified, along with an overall lack of adequate security planning; deep-rooted communication snarls, especially between the Secret Service and local cops; failure to secure the AGR complex; failure to have a sniper team guarding AGR and the lack of a unified command post.

“Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened,” the report concluded.

The panel briefly went through a timeline of Crooks’ movements to illustrate how law enforcement had opportunities to stop him well before he opened fire, killing spectator Corey Comperatore and wounding Trump and two other rallygoers.

Three officers had noticed Crooks at roughly 5 p.m. local time — more than an hour before shots rang out — and deemed him “suspicious,” the report said.

“I observed that [Crooks] was looking up at my sniper elements, or what I believed he believed was our sniper elements,” one of those witnesses, an ESU officer, told the panel. “It really appeared to me that he had absolutely zero interest in anything that was happening inside the fence.”


  A would-be assassin’s bullet clipped Trump, Republicans’ 2024 nominee, in the ear while he was addressing supporters at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the summer.  James Copenhaver A would-be assassin’s bullet clipped Trump, Republicans’ 2024 nominee, in the ear while he was addressing supporters at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the summer.  James Copenhaver

That same witness later observed Crooks again, snapped photos of him and told a colleague that the suspect had a rangefinder. By 5:38 p.m., an ESU officer had sent a text to local snipers suggesting they notify Secret Service.

Multiple calls and messages relaying Crooks’ description reached the Secret Service, per the report. But the task force did not get any hard evidence that the alarm “reached Trump’s Secret Service detail prior to shots fired.”

“Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers could have engaged Thomas Matthew Crooks at several pivotal moments,” the report stressed.

The panel noted that contrary to initial reporting at the time, evidence suggests Crooks did not climb up a ladder he had purchased from Home Depot earlier that day to reach his makeshift sniper’s next. Instead, the FBI believes Crooks climbed up air conditioning systems on the side of the AGR complex in order to gain access to the roof.


  Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire on the rally from a rooftop just outside the event’s security perimeter, killing one attendee and injuring two others in addition to Trump. Iron-Clad-USA.com via Storyful Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire on the rally from a rooftop just outside the event’s security perimeter, killing one attendee and injuring two others in addition to Trump. Iron-Clad-USA.com via Storyful

The security perimeter at the Butler Farm grounds did not include AGR, the report found, pointing to a dispute between law enforcement and federal witnesses over who was responsible for that oversight.

“While the exact order of shots remains unclear, testimony from local law enforcement states that they took a shot in Crooks’ direction, which may have caused Crooks to stop firing,” the report said.

The bipartisan panel is expected to release its final report by Dec. 13.


  Crooks’ autopsy suggests he was only hit by a single bullet which proved fatal, the report noted. AP Crooks’ autopsy suggests he was only hit by a single bullet which proved fatal, the report noted. AP

Between now and then, the panel is working to finish off over 20 transcribed interviews with officials about the July 13 assassination attempt.

Additionally, the panel is planning to embark on a further examination of the Sept. 15 incident at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach in which alleged would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh was fired upon by an advance Secret Service agent on patrol.

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy