DHS inspector general to probe Secret Service response at Trump rally

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is investigating the actions of the Secret Service before and during the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump at a rally in rural Pennsylvania.

Inspector General Joseph Cuffari posted on his office’s website that the department has begun a probe into the “Secret Service’s Process for Securing Former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 Event.”

The Associated Press first reported the investigation.

Cuffari said the independent watchdog agency will evaluate the Secret Service’s process for securing Trump’s campaign event. More details were unavailable. Cuffari’s office has not responded to requests for information from The Washington Post since the shooting on Saturday.

The announcement adds to a growing list of investigations into the shooting, which killed one person, wounded Trump in the ear and critically injured two others. The FBI is leading the criminal investigation, Congress is planning to hold hearings, and President Biden has called for an independent probe of the shooting and the security situation.

On Wednesday, officials from the Secret Service, the Department of Justice, and the FBI will provide a 30-minute update the Senate on the incident starting at 3 p.m., according to the office of Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who asked for the briefing.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has taken responsibility for the security failures that led to the shooting in an interview with ABC News. But the first attack on a U.S. leader under the agency’s protection since the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan has raised broad questions about the elite protective agency’s planning, strategy and response to the attack.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, climbed onto the roof of a building outside the security perimeter of the rally and fired shots at the former president before a Secret Service sniper killed him. The Washington Post has reported that local police snipers were inside the building as the gunman opened fire, and that bystanders at the rally alerted local police that they had spotted a man climbing onto the roof.

The Secret Service was responsible for the overall security plan, but Cheatle said in an interview that the agency relied on local law enforcement in areas outside the security perimeter, including the building where the shooter was. She also said they made the decision to keep officers off the slope roof because the incline presented a safety issue.

“The decision was made to secure the building from inside,” Cheatle said.

Secret Service countersniper teams may have initially been unable to spot the shooter as he crawled up the roof due to its slanted sides, as well as trees in the area, The Post has reported.

Cuffari, whose watchdog office provides independent oversight and auditing of DHS agencies, is a polarizing figure and has faced calls to resign for a series of issues. He has faced criticism for failing to immediately notify Congress that the Secret Service erased its text messages from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, and scrapping efforts to recover the messages, potentially depriving investigators of valuable evidence.

He has also faced criticism for delaying or censoring reports on domestic violence and sexual misconduct within DHS.

Cuffari was a longtime investigator in the Tucson outpost of the Department of Justice inspector general’s office but left in 2013 after an internal investigation accused him of misleading federal investigators. The probe called for a deeper review but Cuffari stepped away from the agency before that occurred. Trump picked him to serve as DHS inspector general and the Senate confirmed him by a voice vote in 2019.

This is a developing story. It will be updated. Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Jacqueline Alemany, and Lisa Rein contributed to this report.