Secret Service missed 102 calls before Trump assassination attempt, inquiry reveals

A damning federal report has exposed the scale of security failures that preceded the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump on 13 July 2024, when gunman Thomas Crooks opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania. The investigation reveals that the Secret Service failed to establish a communications centre, meaning it never received crucial reports about a suspicious individual in the area. An inexperienced operator also failed to fix a malfunction in the drone detection system, a breakdown that allowed Crooks to operate an unmanned aircraft for nine minutes undetected before the shooting began. The report documents how 102 phone calls went unanswered or unprocessed during the critical period, highlighting catastrophic gaps in the agency’s coordination and response protocols. These failures occurred despite heightened security measures being in place for a major political event, raising serious questions about the Secret Service’s operational readiness and training standards. The findings have intensified scrutiny of the agency’s leadership and prompted calls for significant reforms to prevent similar security breaches in the future.

Source: Ynet — Original article in Hebrew.