The independent investigative committee calls for radical reform of the Secret Service in order to avoid a repeat of its catastrophic failures, such as the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13.
In the report of their conclusions, the four members of this commission recommend, in particular, that the Secret Service address be changed, with the appointment to leadership of employees who will not come from within. It is also proposed that from now on it focuses on its main mission, that of protecting individuals, and abandons all others.
“Deeper systemic problems”
The report is addressed to the Minister of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, political chief of the Secret Service. The text notes not only the “many mistakes” made by agents at the Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, but also “deeper systemic problems that need to be urgently addressed.”
“The Secret Service needs fundamental reform to fulfill its mission. Without this reform, the independent commission considers that a second Butler could and will happen again”, it states in the introduction to this 35-page report – in addition to the appendices.
The Director of the Secret Service was temporarily taken over by Ronald Rowe, following the resignation of director Kimberly Chill on July 23, ten days after the events at Butler.
Criticism of the Secret Service centered on the fact that the alleged attacker, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to climb to the roof of a building on the “outer perimeter” of the rally, where local police had jurisdiction, and open fire before of falling dead from the bullets of Secret Service agents. Footage of Donald Trump bloodied and with his fist raised has gone viral.
Sources: AMPE, AFP