The Secret Service is an agency besieged right now. What happened on July 13 that allowed former President Donald Trump to be shot in Butler, Pennsylvania? How was it that the rooftop overlooking the rally site was left unprotected? Congress wants answers. The American people deserve answers. And this agency has followed a protocol where these crucial questions remain on the table. Thomas Matthew Crooks nearly assassinated Donald Trump that day. And we have received numerous updates—all bad—about the total breakdown of the security situation at the rally.
This Secret Service story from @SusanCrabtree is wild: Agents were admonished for falling asleep while guarding Mar-a-Lago this spring. https://t.co/M7QR07O3dg
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 13, 2024
To make matters worse, RealClearPolitics’ Susan Crabtree has a story about the internal issues within Trump’s Secret Service detail. It's a lengthy article, but this 60-person team has devolved into a den of reported unprofessionalism and dysfunction. Agents were reportedly caught sleeping on the job at Mar-a-Lago. One member of the team was lost to suicide. The atmosphere could be described as toxic (via RCP):
Trump’s regular detail team, a force of 60 employees – special agents and support staff – has been beset by internal division, long workdays and weeks, and constant stress. Last year, the team lost one of its members to suicide.
Among the allegations are accusations of improper sexual relationships or fraternization within the team, debilitating mental health issues, non-merit-based promotions, conflict of interest issues, unfair retaliation and the creation of inappropriate memes and social media posts.
On May 15, the top two leaders of Trump’s detail sternly dressed down the entire 60-member staff in a virtual meeting, announcing formal investigations into what they argued were serious misconduct violations, several sources in the Secret Service with direct knowledge of the online meeting tell RealClearPolitics.
Sean Curran, the detail leader and top boss of Trump’s regular 60-member protective team, and his deputy, Matthew Piant, complained of “rumors, innuendo and toxicity” among the detail, as well as “selfishness and immaturity.”
They reminded all employees that they had worked to mentor and train them, and, up to this point, had refrained from referring agents and support employees for discipline even though there had been violations that they could have reported to agency headquarters for investigation.
Curran and Piant complained that they were not getting the same treatment in response from the team. Over the last year, the two leaders have been the target of formal complaints, and some members on the team viewed the all-hands lecture as an effort to turn the tables and retaliate on those complaining about their leadership.
Piant spoke first, accusing someone on the detail of stealing from another. But he quickly shifted to harshly condemning an incident in which a teammate took cellphone photos of two members of the support staff sleeping in a command post while guarding Mar-a-Lago and circulated those to others on the detail.
Crabtree added that even though some chalked up the sleeping photos as a prank, it created unnecessary tension and hostility among the team. Moreover, ever since the agency was embarrassed when a drunk person slipped past the Secret Service and stumbled into the home of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan last year, such incidents could warrant severe disciplinary action. And that’s the point: some members of the team had raw emotions about the sleeping photos because nothing was done to the agents who passed out. Hence, why the evidence was reportedly shared with other members of the detail. And then, there’s the site agent who apparently has been posting on social media while on duty, endangering herself and the protectee:
The allegations against the site agent are a separate matter. The agent is now under the microscope not only for her role in devising the security plan for the rally. She’s also facing internal scrutiny for posting videos and photos from her protective assignments to social media. The Secret Service discourages the practice, especially while standing watch on protective duty because it can pinpoint to would-be assailants exactly where the Secret Service positions its assets, risking the protectee and fellow law enforcement agents and officers, according to several sources within the Secret Service community.
The agent in question served as the official site agent for the July 13 Butler event that ended in an assassination attempt wounding Donald Trump in the ear and killing rally-goer Corey Comperatore in front of his family. RealClearPolitics is not naming the agent out of concern for her personal safety.
As a member of Trump’s 60-member regular detail, the agent was responsible for helping formulate the security plan for the event, although she was mostly focused on the inner perimeter. She also joined forces with the event’s lead agent, a woman from the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh Field Office, in conducting a walk-through of the security with supervisors. The lead agent typically oversees security at the entire event from airport arrival to event to hotel stay to airport departure.
An RCP analysis of the Butler rally site agent’s Facebook account noted a photo that appears to be taken from Mar-a-Lago looking across the intercoastal waterway.
“A sunset to be grateful for …” the post states, including a heart and sunset emojis and the hashtags “#nofilter #southflorida #thankful #workmode …”
Sources familiar with the videos said most appeared on the agent’s Instagram account, which is marked private.
Sources within the Secret Service say the site agent was inexperienced for such a critical security role but noted that the position is rotated throughout the Trump detail, not routinely assigned based on merit or experience.
Besides the reports of a toxic work environment, the agency has been mired by many embarrassing incidents and allegations that agents are not properly vetted or trained. Not every workplace is perfect, but the Kimberly Cheatle regime certainly didn’t help ensure that this agency remained in fighting form.
News: There's a petition circulating inside the US Secret Service that flags concerns about "a number of recent Secret Service incidents indicative of inadequate training," a double standard in disciplinary actions, and a vulnerability "to potential insider threats" that could…
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 9, 2024
The head of Kamala Harris’ detail, Michelle Herczeg, suffered what’s described as a mental breakdown in April. Despite concerns about mental fitness and not clinching some training benchmarks, her assignment was approved. This feeds into reports from May that agents weren’t properly trained, which explains the Sullivan fiasco and an intrusion into Obama’s Hawaii residence, which Crabtree cites. The Obamas were not in the residence, but their daughters were. Yet, the Miami Field Office breach is something you cannot make up:
In late May of this year, an erratic man was able to infiltrate and spend at least one night in the Miami Field Office, according to four sources familiar with the incident.
Some agents working out in the gym violated office policy by propping open the door to help ventilate the room. A man in shorts and a t-shirt entered through that partially opened door, and no one noticed. The man, identified as Ashtyn Domenech by one knowledgeable source, apparently found the “bunk room,” took a shower, and fell asleep in a bed overnight, sources said.
Domenech accessed computers on an open internet line and downloaded and watched porn, according to two sources familiar with the trespassing incident.
The next morning, Domenech asked administration staff where he “could get a cup of coffee around here,” and the employees responded by fulfilling his request for coffee without realizing he didn’t belong there, the sources said. He then ventured into a class on defensive tactics that a supervisor was teaching. The supervisor confronted him about his identity and apprehended him.
Domenech was turned over to local police, where he faced charges of burglary, theft, and misuse of a police badge.
What is going on with this agency? And no wonder why this was a shambolic outing at Butler. Also, how is it possible that the Secret Service did not have access to the local radio system? That’s why no federal agent ever relayed Crooks’ picture or description until it was too late. Also, the new bodycam footage shows a local law enforcement officer venting his frustration that no one was protecting the building Crooks perched, claiming the agency told him there would be agents guarding the area.
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