A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that high-ranking Secret Service officials did not share important classified information about a possible threat to President Trump before the July 13, 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where there was an attempt on his life.
The report says this critical intelligence was shared within the Secret Service 10 days before the rally, but because of the agency’s internal way of handling information—described as “siloed”—many of the people working at the event didn’t know anything about the potential threat.
According to the report: “The Secret Service had no process to share classified threat information with partners when the information was not considered an imminent threat to life.”
This means that even though the intelligence was serious and “highly classified,” it wasn’t flagged as urgent or immediately dangerous, so it wasn’t passed along to the people who needed it most—those in charge of protecting Trump at the rally.
The report doesn’t explain exactly what the threat was, but it does make clear that local law enforcement and Secret Service agents working on the ground in Butler were unaware of any warning signs. This included the Secret Service’s advance team, which is supposed to plan ahead for events and make sure everything is secure.
Even the special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office, which has jurisdiction over the area where the rally took place, said he never got any warning or information about the threat. He told investigators that if he had known, he would have taken additional steps like bringing in ballistic glass, better drone surveillance, and a full counter-sniper team.
The GAO says that the Secret Service had “multiple opportunities to share this information” before the rally, but simply did not. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, released the report publicly and criticized the handling of the situation. He said: “One year ago, a series of bad decisions and bureaucratic handicaps led to one of the most shocking moments in political history.”
He also blamed past mismanagement and the Biden administration, saying they denied requests for better protection for Trump. “Americans should be grateful that President Trump survived that day and was ultimately reelected to restore common sense to our country,” Grassley added.
He described the 98-page GAO report as a “comprehensive overview of the failures” that took place both before and on the day of the rally. “More importantly, this report offers a clear path forward for the Secret Service to improve, so it can prevent another Butler from ever happening again,” he said. Grassley also emphasized that congressional oversight was key to uncovering the details in the report, and he promised to keep working on these issues.
The GAO didn’t just focus on the threat sharing problem. It also pointed out that some agents working at the rally had different levels of experience and were not always following the same procedures. Out of 14 agents interviewed, five said they relied mostly on their own past experiences, rather than a consistent plan, to do their jobs at the event.
The agent in charge of identifying weak points at the site was also new to her role, according to the report. It was her first time planning and securing a large outdoor rally, which adds to the concerns about how well the event was organized and protected.
There were also technical issues. The report says that the Secret Service was short on drones that could have been used to spot the shooter. Some drones had already been sent to prepare for the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and the ones that were left didn’t work properly or were flown by operators with little experience.
In response to the findings, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said on Saturday that his agency has read the report carefully and is already making changes.“Following the events of July 13, the Secret Service took a serious look at our operations and implemented substantive reforms to address the failures that occurred that day,” Curran said.
He added that they are “committed to implementing all recommendations and have already made substantial progress on several of them.” Curran also expressed appreciation for the support from different leaders, saying:
“The Secret Service appreciates the continued support of President Trump, Congress, and our federal and local partners who have been instrumental in providing crucial resources needed to support the agency’s efforts.”
The GAO report highlights serious issues in how threats are handled and how security is managed at major political events. While no lives were lost in the attempted assassination, the near-tragedy has brought renewed attention to how presidential protection is planned, shared, and carried out.
For now, the Secret Service says it is working to fix the problems. But the report raises big questions about how such a dangerous situation could happen with so many warnings, and whether similar failures could happen again in the future.
