An independent panel investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally faulted the Secret Service for poor communications that day and failing to secure the building where the gunman took his shots.
The review also found more systemic issues at the agency such as a failure to understand the unique risks facing Mr Trump and a culture of doing “more with less”.
The 52-page report issued on Thursday took the Secret Service to task for specific problems leading up to the July 13 rally in Butler as well as a deeper one within the agency’s culture.
It recommended bringing in new, outside leadership and refocusing on its protective mission.
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” the authors wrote to secretary of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas – as head of the Homeland Security Department, the Secret Services’ parent agency – in a letter accompanying their report.
“Without that reform, the independent review panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
One rally-goer was killed and two others wounded when Thomas Michael Crooks climbed onto the roof of a nearby building and opened fire as Mr Trump spoke.
The former president was wounded in the ear before being rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents.
That shooting, along with another incident in Florida when Mr Trump was golfing — a gunman there never got a line of sight on the president or fired a shot — has led to a crisis of confidence in the agency.
The report by a panel of four former law enforcement officials from national and state government follows investigations by members of Congress, the agency’s own investigators and by Homeland Security’s oversight body.
The panel echoed previous reports that have highlighted the failure to secure the building near the rally that had a clear line of sight to where Mr Trump was speaking and the multiple communications problems that hindered the ability of the Secret Service and local and state law enforcement to talk to each other.
“The failure to secure a complex of buildings, portions of which were within approximately 130 yards of the protectee and containing numerous positions carrying high-angle line-of-sight risk, represents a critical security failure,” the report said.
The panel faulted the planning between Secret Service and the local law enforcement, and said the Secret Service failed to ask about what was being done to secure the building: “Relying on a general understanding that ‘the locals have that area covered’ is simply not good enough and, in fact, at Butler this attitude contributed to the security failure.”
The panel also cited the fact that there were two separated command posts at the Butler rally, one with various local law enforcement and another with the Secret Service: “This created, at the highest level, a structural divide in the flow of communications.”
There were other communications problems, including the Secret Service having to switch radio channels because radio traffic of agents protecting First Lady Jill Biden at an event in Pittsburgh was popping up on the channels of agents covering the Butler rally.
The panel also noted that all the law enforcement personnel on the ground were using a “chaotic mixture” of radio, mobile phone, text, and e-mail throughout the day to communicate.
The panel also said it was unclear who had ultimate command that day, faulting some of the senior-level staff who were involved in the rally for what they called a “lack of ownership”.
The panel concluded the agency needed new, outside leadership and a renewed focus on its core protective mission.
