A US Secret Service investigation has found communications lapses and negligence before the attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump last July at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Some agents became overconfident and breached security protocols,” acting CIA Director Ronald Rowe told reporters on Friday, adding that those responsible would be held accountable.
“The sanctions will be applied in accordance with our disciplinary procedures,” he said, declining to provide specific details.
The attempted assassination of Trump at the campaign rally on July 13 sparked widespread criticism of the Secret Service and led to the resignation of its director.
Critics have raised concerns about how the suspect was able to reach the roof of a nearby building, giving him a direct view of where the former president was speaking.
Rowe defended the agency’s actions in a second apparent assassination attempt at Trump’s golf club in Florida on Sunday. In that case, a Secret Service agent shot the suspect after seeing a gun penetrate a tree line.
The suspect did not fire a single shot and did not have a direct view of Trump, who was playing golf a few hundred feet away.
The suspect, Ryan Roth, 58, fled and was later arrested and charged with weapons offenses.
In the Pennsylvania incident, Trump’s ear was injured, one attendee was killed and two others were wounded in the shooting. The Secret Service has since said it is “ashamed” of the security lapse.
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