Helen Comperatore, the widow of the slain Pennsylvania fire chief who was killed during last year’s assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, has denounced the Secret Service’s internal suspensions as a weak and inadequate response. On the first anniversary of the tragic day that will go down in history, Helen is demanding full accountability, insisting that temporary disciplinary measures won’t cut it in the face of an egregious security failure that nearly claimed the life of a president and took her husband’s, Corey Comperatore's, life.
"Suspending them when my husband was killed? You know, that’s not punishment,” Helen Comperatore said during an interview with “FOX & Friends Weekend.”
Six Secret Service agents—ranging from senior supervisors to ground-level staff—have been suspended without pay for periods between 10 and 42 days in the wake of the security breakdown at President Trump’s July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Deputy Director Matt Quinn explained that the disciplinary action was part of a federal process aimed at addressing “operational failure” without resorting to immediate termination. The agents will be reassigned to limited or non-field duties. However, a Senate investigation led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) uncovered significant lapses, including missed threat warnings, poor communication, and inadequate leadership. The report concluded the assassination attempt was preventable and argued that the disciplinary measures handed down were too lenient, calling for tougher accountability.
"I’m really right at the beginning where I was back a year ago,” she said. “You know, we really haven’t healed that much."
"We have no answers," Helen continued, adding that she believes it was a Secret Service error.
“I believe that they failed my husband miserably, and I want answers from them," Helen demanded. "I want to sit down with the Secret Service, and I want them to tell me everything that happened that day. I want to know why they failed. I want to know what happened. Why, Butler? Why was that such a failure that day? What was the reason? Why did [Crooks] walk around for an hour without someone grabbing him? Why?”
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Fighting back tears, she said that she and her family relive her husband’s death “every day … multiple times a day," describing him as a "wonderful human," the "best dad," and the "best husband."
Helen also said that she believes 20-year-old would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks “acted alone.”
While the Secret Service never contacted her, she praised FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino for taking the time to call her and walk her through “a lot of what happened that day with Thomas Crooks."
"He was very kind and left me his phone number and said I can call him any time," she said of Bongino.
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