The panel looking into the Trump assassination attempt says the intelligence community needs “fundamental reform.”

WASHINGTON— An independent panel investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania accused the Secret Service of poor communication that day and failing to secure the building where the gunman fired. The review also found more systemic problems at the agency, such as a lack of understanding of the unique risks Trump faces and a culture of “doing more with less.”

The 52-page report released Thursday took the Secret Service to task for specific problems leading up to the July 13 rally in Butler, as well as deeper problems within the agency’s culture. It recommended bringing in new, external leadership and refocusing on its protection mission.

“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to achieve its mission,” wrote authors Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Homeland Security Department, the Secret Service’s parent agency, in a letter accompanying their report. “Without this reform, the Independent Review Board believes another Butler can and will happen again.”

One rally attendee was killed and two others were injured when Thomas Michael Crooks climbed to the roof of a nearby building and opened fire while Trump was speaking. The former president was injured in the ear before being chased off the stage by Secret Service agents. That shooting, along with another incident in Florida while Trump was golfing – a gunman there neither glanced at the president nor fired a shot – has led to a crisis of confidence in the agency.

The report, by a panel of four former federal and state law enforcement officials, is based on investigations by members of Congress, the agency’s own investigators and the Department of Homeland Security’s regulator.

A look at the report’s key findings and recommendations:

The panel reiterated previous reports that focused on the failure to secure the building near the rally, which had a clear line to the location where Trump was speaking, and the numerous communications problems that hampered the ability of the Secret Service and local officials and state law enforcement agencies interfered with talking to each other.

“Failure to secure a complex of buildings, parts of which were located within approximately 130 meters of the object of protection and contained numerous positions posing a risk of high angle line of sight, constitutes a serious security deficiency,” it says the report.

The panel criticized the planning between the Secret Service and local law enforcement, saying the Secret Service failed to ask what was being done to secure the building: “It’s simply not possible to rely on the general understanding that ‘the locals.’ “We secured this area well enough and in fact this attitude contributed to the failure of security at Butler.”

The panel also cited the fact that there were two separate command posts at the Butler rally: one at different local law enforcement agencies and another at the Secret Service: “This created a structural divide in the flow of communications at the highest levels.”

There were other communication problems.

The Secret Service had to change radio channels because radio traffic from agents protecting First Lady Jill Biden at an event in Pittsburgh appeared on the channels of agents covering the Butler rally.

The panel also found that all police personnel on site used a “chaotic mix” of radio, cell phones, text messages and email to communicate throughout the day.

The panel also said it was unclear who was in supreme command that day.

The report took a deep dive into the agency’s culture and painted a picture of an agency that struggles to think critically about how it accomplishes its mission, particularly when it comes to protecting Trump.

The panel said agency staff assumed they would effectively have to “do more with less.” The report said the additional security measures taken to protect Trump after the Butler shooting should have been put in place earlier.

“To be clear, the panel did not identify any nefarious or malicious intent behind this phenomenon, but rather an overreliance on assigning personnel based on categories (alumni, candidate, nominee) rather than an individual risk assessment,” the panel wrote.

The panel also noted the “back and forth” between the Trump security team and Secret Service headquarters over the number of people needed to protect him.

The panel also accused some senior staff involved in the rally of a “lack of ownership.” In one example, the panel said a senior local official tasked with coordinating communications did not tour the rally site ahead of time and failed to brief state police colleagues before the rally about how communications would be managed.

It cited the relative inexperience of two specific agents who played a security role at the July 13 rally. One of them was the on-site agent from Trump’s department, whose job it was to coordinate security planning for the rally with the field office in Pittsburgh. The panel said the agent graduated from the Secret Service Academy in 2020 and has only been on the Trump team since 2023. Before the Butler rally, the agent only conducted “minor on-site preparatory work or on-site security planning.”

Another agent tasked with operating a drone detection system had only used the technology in two previous events.

A unified command post at all major events where Secret Service and other law enforcement representatives are physically in the same location; Overhead surveillance for all outdoor events; Security plans must include a way to address concerns about site boundaries up to 1,000 meters away and who is responsible at the event; and more training on how to get protectees out of dangerous scenarios.

The panel said the agency also needs new, outside leadership and a renewed focus on its nuclear protection mission, but expressed skepticism that the agency should continue with the investigations it is currently conducting. While the Secret Service is known for protecting presidents and other dignitaries, it also investigates financial crimes.

“In the panel’s view, it is simply unacceptable for the service to focus less than primarily on its protection mission, particularly when that protection mission function is currently suboptimal,” the report said.

Panel members included Mark Filip, deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush; David Mitchell, who served in numerous state and local law enforcement roles in Maryland and Delaware; Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama; and Frances Fragos Townsend, Bush’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism.