The Secret Service has reportedly suspended six agents without pay in response to the assassination attempt on President Trump that took place on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, with the agency’s deputy director saying that the Secret Service is “not going to fire our way out of this,” referring to a clear deficiencies within their ranks.
For background, the Secret Service has come under fire in the wake of the July 13, 2024, attempt on President Trump’s life, which culminated in a bullet grazing the president’s ear. On July 10, 2025, the agency announced that it had suspended six agents without pay. Moreover, the Secret Service’s deputy director, Matt Quinn, told CBS News that the agents received penalties ranging from 10 to 42 days of leave.
Speaking to CBS, Quinn said that his agency is “laser-focused on fixing the root cause of the problem,” adding, “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.”
However, Quinn also clarified that the Secret Service “is totally accountable for Butler,” explaining that the incident was an “operational failure.” He continued, “We are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again.” In addition, the deputy director said that the agency is currently looking into systemic issues within its ranks, which were addressed in a House of Representatives report on the agency published in December 2024.
In its 180-page report, the House task force charged with investigating the Butler incident called the assassination attempt “tragic and shocking, ” adding that it was “preventable and should not have happened.” The task force clarified, “There was not, however, a singular moment or decision that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to nearly assassinate the former President.”
Furthermore, the House argued that Congress ” must consider whether the Secret Service’s investigative obligations can effectively coexist with its primary protective mission,” adding that the agency’s responsibility for investigation possibly “should remain within the Department of Homeland Security.”
In addition, the task force’s report noted that the number of people being protected by the Secret Service “has greatly expanded,” which it argued created a “resource demand which becomes further taxed during the longer and more intensive modern presidential campaign seasons.” The report went on to argue that the Secret Service should reconsider its role in protecting foreign leaders, “and consider whether such duties can be transferred or abrogated in order to focus on the USSS’s primary duty: to protect the President and other critical U.S. leaders.”
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Importantly, the Secret Service was also fiercely criticized after a second attempt on President Trump’s life took place in West Palm Beach, Florida, just two weeks after the Butler incident. On July 9, 2025, the Florida man accused of attempting to assassinate the president, Ryan Routh, reportedly said that he wanted to waive his court-appointed attorneys and represent himself.
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