Secret Service places multiple agents on leave over Trump assassination attempt investigation

The U.S. Secret Service has placed multiple agents on leave, including the head of the Pittsburgh field office, as a result of its investigation into last month’s assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

The Secret Service’s internal affairs division is continuing to investigate how a 20-year-old gunman was able to fire eight rounds from a rooftop near where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, including one shot that grazed the Republican presidential nominee’s ear. 

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to confirm the agents were placed on leave, saying he would not comment on a personnel matter. But he said the service’s “mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”

He added that the Secret Service “holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action.”

One man, Pennsylvania father and firefighter Corey Comperatore, was shot and killed at the rally. Two other spectators were seriously injured. The gunman was killed by a Secret Service sniper who was positioned behind the stage where Trump was speaking.

Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service at the time, faced blistering questions from members of Congress in the aftermath. She eventually resigned after declining to provide specifics about the investigation into the shooting and the service’s response. She was replaced by Acting Director Ronald Rowe, who told senators he was “ashamed” of the assassination attempt and vowed to investigate the failures that allowed the gunman to open fire.

Congress is also investigating the incident and the Secret Service’s handling of the rally. The House has assembled a task force on the assassination attempt, and senators have demanded swaths of records from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. 

Trump held his first outdoor rally since the shooting this week, where he was surrounded by bulletproof glass as a security precaution.

Pat Milton

Pat Milton, an award-winning journalist, is the senior producer of the CBS News Investigative Unit, specializing in national security, the FBI, Intelligence and federal law enforcement.