Matt Quinn, the agency’s deputy director, told CBS News on Wednesday that they “weren’t going to fire [their] way out of this,” but did say they are “laser focused on fixing the root cause of the problem.”
Quinn told the outlet that the agents received penalties ranging from 10 to 42 days of unpaid leave and were assigned to restricted roles with reduced responsibilities upon their return. He added that the disciplinary measures followed a federally mandated process.
The agency faced intense criticism after the security breach that enabled gunman Thomas Crooks to open fire toward the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, father, and husband attending the event, was killed. President Trump was grazed by a bullet, and two other men were wounded by the gunfire. Crooks was ultimately killed by a Secret Service sniper.
“Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler,” Quinn told CBS. “Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again.” He also said the agency is focusing on the “root cause” of the operational failure and fixing “the deficiencies that put us in that situation.”
Since the Butler rally, Quinn stated that the Secret Service has deployed a new fleet of military-grade drones and mobile command posts to enhance radio communications with local law enforcement, Fox News reported.
The agency faced renewed criticism weeks later following a second assassination attempt on Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida. Although the attempt was thwarted, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned, and the agency became the focus of multiple investigations and congressional hearings.
In December, a bipartisan House task force released a 180-page report declaring the Butler incident “preventable,” pointing to “preexisting” leadership and training deficiencies that “created an environment” conducive to security failures.
The report also noted that Secret Service did not coordinate well with local law enforcement.
Trump made some comments last week regarding the government’s investigation into one of the assassination attempts against him last year.
In response to a reporter’s query on Friday, the president said he’s “very satisfied” with the FBI’s investigation into the assassination attempt against him in Pennsylvania.
Trump made his remarks to Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese on Thursday, putting to rest months of speculation and doubt surrounding the case. Until now, Trump had stopped short of giving the FBI a full endorsement, The Daily Caller reported.
In an earlier interview with Fox News, he admitted some parts of the case didn’t sit right. “I’m relying on my people to tell me what it is … The Secret Service, they tell me, is fine. But it’s a little hard to believe,” he said.
Back in March, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told Fox News there was no evidence of some grand conspiracy against Trump. “In some of these cases, the ‘there’ you’re looking for is not there. And I know people — I get it, I understand. It’s not there. If it was there, we would have told you,” Bongino said.
That same month, Daily Caller’s Reese pressed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about whether Trump was satisfied with Bongino’s answer.
Leavitt responded, “Well, in the lead-up to your question, you answered your own question with the president’s own words, and I’ll leave it at that.”
In May, Bongino announced investigations into some well-known cases that involve “potential public corruption.”
The cases, which appeared to be ignored during the administration of former President Joe Biden, that are getting a new look include the attempted pipe-bombing in Washington, D.C., cocaine that was found at the White House, and the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that ended Roe v. Wade.
U.S. intelligence agencies are reviewing an encrypted communication believed to have originated inside Iran that may have been intended for covert operatives abroad, according to an alert reported by ABC News.
The message was described by officials as a possible “operational trigger” directed at what analysts refer to as sleeper assets — individuals embedded in foreign countries who maintain low profiles until receiving instructions.
The transmission was detected shortly after the reported killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike in Tehran on Feb. 28. Iranian authorities later elevated his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to the position of supreme leader.
According to the intelligence alert, the encrypted signal was transmitted across multiple countries and flagged by U.S. monitoring systems. Analysts assessed that the communication was likely of Iranian origin and may have been intended for clandestine recipients who could decode the message using predetermined passcodes.
Officials said the transmission showed characteristics consistent with “international rebroadcast characteristics,” which can be used to distribute coded instructions over long distances without relying on internet-based communications.
The alert indicated that the transmissions resemble methods historically used to convey instructions to “covert operatives or sleeper assets” without relying on internet communications.
The signals could “be intended to activate or provide instructions to prepositioned sleeper assets operating outside the originating country,” the alert said, according to ABC News.
Concerns among security officials have increased regarding the potential presence of Iranian sleeper cells within the United States, especially as the conflict enters its second week.
Last year, the Daily Mail reported on what it termed a “passport pipeline” involving operatives linked to Iran traveling through Venezuela before reaching Western countries. This pathway could allow networks to establish a foothold close to the U.S.