WASHINGTON — The Secret Service has assigned five agents to administrative duties as a result of its investigation into the failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13, according to two people familiar with the situation.
This means the agents have been relieved of their operational duties, such as planning protective details for candidate rallies, according to the people familiar with the situation, who were not authorized to speak about the matter and spoke instead on condition of anonymity. The agents have not been fired and are still being paid.
The Secret Service declined to comment, citing rules against publicly discussing personnel matters.
Four agents placed on administrative duties are from the Pittsburgh office, and one is from Trump’s personal detail.
Placement on administrative duties is different from being placed on administrative leave, which typically requires agents to turn in their badges and guns until an investigation is completed.
On July 13, a would-be assassin climbed onto a roof on the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 450 feet from where Trump was addressing some 15,000 supporters. The man fired eight shots, killing one man and injuring Trump and two others. A Secret Service sniper posted on another roof in the area killed the gunman with a single shot.
While dozens of Secret Service agents and officers were part of the security detail for the event, a handful had been assigned direct oversight of the plans.
For weeks, some lawmakers have been demanding that the agency fire culpable agents or, at a minimum, place them on leave. The agency’s director at the time of the rally, Kimberly A. Cheatle, resigned a day after she testified before Congress nine days after the event.
Pressed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., during a congressional hearing last month, the agency’s acting director, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., explained why no one had been fired.
“I want to be neutral and make sure that we get to the bottom of it and interview everybody in order to determine if there was more than one person who perhaps exercised bad judgment,” Rowe said. “You’re asking me, senator, to completely make a rush to judgment about somebody failing. I acknowledge this was a failure of the Secret Service.”
There are several investigations into what happened that day. For its part, the Secret Service is conducting an internal “mission assurance” review and has been interviewing its own personnel.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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