The failures in Butler, Pennsylvania by the Secret Service are obvious. One man is dead, the once and future president of the United States was struck by a bullet and Providentially spared, and others were badly injured.

The fact that Thomas Crooks was able to survey the grounds, pick his perch, bring in arms, set up, aim, and take his shots before being taken out, all screams “failure.” While we have seen the director of the Secret Service at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, resign after being grilled by Congress, and her immediate interim successor, Ronald Rowe, also leave, there has not been much, if any, reported accountability for the agents on the ground who were supposed to be in control of the situation. The only named Secret Service agent we know who was there at Butler was the head of Donald Trump’s personal detail, Sean Curran – and he was promoted to be the new director of the agency!

Everyone on both sides of the political aisle agreed that Butler was an absolute failure by the Secret Service. Last August, it was reported that at least five Secret Service agents had been put on leave after Butler, and that among their number was the head of the Pittsburgh field office. On Wednesday evening, the Secret Service confirmed that six agents had been suspended for varying lengths of time for their failure at Butler.

Matt Quinn, Secret Service deputy director, told CBS News that their penalty ranged from 10 to 42 days of leave without pay or benefits. The personnel were placed into restricted duty or roles with less operational responsibility upon their return.

“We are laser focused on fixing the root cause of the problem,” said Quinn, who defended the agency’s decision to not dismiss anyone after the security failure on July 13, 2024, in which a gunman opened fire during a campaign rally and a bullet grazed Mr. Trump’s ear. One person was killed and two others were wounded while the alleged gunman, Thomas Crooks, was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

“We aren’t going to fire our way out of this,” Quinn said in an interview Wednesday. “We’re going to focus on the root cause and fix the deficiencies that put us in that situation.”

“Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler,” he said. “Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again.”

The Secret Service might not be able to “fire their way out of this,” but suspension without pay or benefits? Someone only got ten days? Corey Comperatore DIED, and someone got a ten day suspension? Even 42 days – only about a month and a half – is not a lot of discipline to the outsider’s eye when someone died and others were injured, including the protectee.

It’s been almost a full year since Butler, and the Secret Service is just now revealing how they disciplined the agents for what happened? Or is, as Senator Mike Lee posted on X, the suspension happening right now, almost a year later? Regardless of the timeline of the discipline, the question really is, why was no one fired for what happened?

Good question

I intend to find out why

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 10, 2025

And there are other people who want accountability for what happened in Butler that day, too.

A bullet hit Trump’s ear. Crooks’ gunfire killed firefighter Corey Comperatore and injured two others in the crowd: Jim Copenhaver and David Dutch.

The victims are linked by the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Farm Show Grounds in Butler on July 13, 2024. They’re bonded by their mutual concern for whether anybody will ever be held accountable for what they believe is gross negligence.

The families are also linked by their frustration about the communication and security failures of the Secret Service and lingering questions.

“As far as the Secret Service, you failed my brother. You failed our family,” (Corey’s sister Kelly) Comperatore Meeder said.

“How does this 20-year-old snot-nosed kid outsmart the Secret Service?” Comperatore Meeder added.

“My biggest frustration is that everybody knew. We have all seen the videos, they are everywhere. There are people saying there is a guy on the roof, he has a gun,” Comperatore Meeder added.

“Why did they walk him out? Why? If they would have waited one more minute, one more minute, until the threat had subsided, this whole thing would have taken a totally different trajectory and my brother would still be alive,” she said.

Dutch and Copenhaver want answers too.

When asked what justice would look like, Dutch replied, “Truth. Whatever the truth actually would be. Unredacted reports.”

“I want accountability. If you are going to do a job, do it the way it’s supposed to be done,” Dutch said.

When asked if he thinks there’s more to the story, Dutch said, “More than likely, but we probably will never hear anything about it.”

“I would like to hear what is being held back. There are phones that were been found, there were devices that were not fully exposed. I want to hear about that,” Copenhaver said.

“I understand because of their position, they are not personally liable, but because of their position, they should have job liability,” Copenhaver added.

Comperatore Meeder agreed on the need for accountability.

“We want somebody named. We want names, that’s what we want. We want accountability. People should be fired. This should have happened before now. Here we are a year later and we still don’t know — the three of us, I’m speaking for the three of us — we still don’t know anything more than we knew then,” she said.

Copenhaver, Dutch, and the Comperatore family are all owed a full accounting for what happened in Butler by the Secret Service. We don’t even know what roles these agents had during the Butler rally and what they did during the assassination attempt! But with this news, it doesn’t seem they are that interested in accountability. Saying that the Secret Service owns what happened that July day doesn’t ring true with simply slapping people on the wrist by docking their pay, and then reassigning them to easier jobs, and having one director resign and the next one retire. Obviously, the agency learned that these agents were not up to par in planning and executing a security plan. But “less responsibility” as a punishment? Why not just FIRE them? If they can’t do their job, shouldn’t they be cut loose from the agency?

Sean Curran and Matt Quinn had better be listening to the Butler survivors. They deserve to hear, straight from the top, why “suspension without pay” and less important jobs within the Secret Service is a good enough solution to fix the obvious problems that are plaguing the agency. And if the Secret Service isn’t willing to provide that, then Congress needs to get off their butt and get some answers.

UPDATE 1 PM PDT
This is very, very bad. Susan Crabtree of Real Clear Politics has done the most consistent reporting on the chaos within the Secret Service, and she has new details that make the agency look even worse (if that was possible). She is naming names, and reporting that people at the higher levels got promoted, while lower level agents are taking the suspensions.

One of those supervisors on the final walkthroughs, Nick Menster, was assigned this year as the No. 2 in charge of the Lara and Eric Trump protective detail. The other, Nick Olszewski, ironically, became the chief (special agent in charge) of the Inspection Division, which is responsible for ensuring the accountability and integrity of the agency’s personnel and operations.

Inexperienced agents positioned for failure and a more senior agent who spoke out about the ambiguity about the AGR roof coverage, according to Secret Service sources and Congressional testimony, are taking the fall.

Rank-and-file agents are incensed over the decision not to hold the supervisors accountable, further sinking the low morale and exacerbating retention problems throughout the agency. Secret Service Director Sean Curran was in charge of the Donald Trump detail at the time of the rally, and Menster served under his command.

Another big point – multiple Secret Service sources tell me that the original Secret Service disciplinary recommendations varied but maxed out at 52 days without pay. However, lawyers for the agents were able to scale that discipline down to 10 to 42 days without pay. This is a relatively light punishment for such egregious failures, but the fact that some of these agents didn’t receive the supervisory oversight that an outdoor rally of this magnitude required is likely a mitigating factor. If so, that begs the question of why key supervisors appear to have skated.

The agents being suspended may still decide to sue the agency.

Three of the six who are taking the fall (unpaid suspension) are:

Myotsoty Perez – an inexperienced agent (according to Congressional testimony, which did not name her) who was the “site agent” in charge of the security for the rally. She was part of the regular Donald Trump detail and was not chosen for the big outdoor J13 rally, but simply had her “rotation” come up, according to multiple Secret Service sources.

Meredith Bank – a far more experienced agent out of the Pittsburgh Field Office who was serving as the “lead agent” for the day of the rally – overseeing operations from the time then-candidate Trump arrived at the airport to the final departure. She told Congressional investigators that she informed Perez that her supervisor, Nick Menster, would be asking her where the local law enforcement were to be positioned in/on the AGR building. Menster, however, never specifically asked that question, according to the Congressional transcripts.

Dana Dubrey – a mid-level agent in the Pittsburgh Field Office who served as the “site counterpart.”

Tim Burke – the chief (special agent in charge) of the Pittsburgh Field Office.

Brian Pardini – the No. 2 in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office.

John Marciniak – the Uniformed Division counter sniper who was assigned to the rally late because of the Iranian threat to Trump’s life. Marciniak had just two days, instead of the customary five, to formulate his security plan.

More reporting to come — especially concerning Burke and Pardini.

If agents decide to start suing over allegedly unmerited suspensions, and others with higher profiles and more responsibility were promoted, then the shit will most definitely hit the fan. If Congress was smart, they would start hauling people in to testify right now.

Featured image: United States Secret Service star logo via Wikimedia Commons, public domain, no commercial endorsements