Six Secret Service agents have been suspended without pay after the agency admitted catastrophic failures during the July 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally. The suspensions, which impacted both supervisors and line-level agents, ranged from 10 to 42 days and were enforced in February, though the news was only confirmed now as a Senate report on the incident is set to drop.

Matt Quinn, the agency’s deputy director, told CBS News the Secret Service would not “fire our way out of this” but acknowledged “Butler was an operational failure,” adding that the agency is “laser focused” on fixing the deficiencies that allowed the shooting to happen. The suspended agents have since returned to duty in reduced roles with fewer responsibilities.

The July 13, 2024, attack left Trump grazed by a bullet, visibly bloodied as Secret Service agents rushed him from the stage. Tragically, 50-year-old firefighter Corey Comperatore, a husband and father, was killed, and two others were injured when the shooter, Thomas Crooks, opened fire from a nearby rooftop. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper, but the attack left the nation shaken and highlighted shocking gaps in presidential security.

The agency faced even more heat weeks later when a second assassination attempt on Trump in West Palm Beach was foiled, prompting the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. A bipartisan House task force report later declared the Butler attack “preventable,” blaming leadership and training failures for creating conditions that allowed Crooks to position himself undetected.

Quinn revealed that since the attack, the Secret Service has rolled out a fleet of military-grade drones and mobile command posts to enhance coordination with local law enforcement and improve radio communications, hoping to prevent a repeat of the Butler disaster.

Critics argue that the Secret Service’s failures nearly cost Trump his life while also failing the American people who expect presidential security to be ironclad. The upcoming Senate report is expected to detail the agency’s lack of coordination with local police and identify how intelligence and planning breakdowns allowed a heavily armed shooter to get into position.

President Trump, who was campaigning for re-election at the time, later demanded the Secret Service give him “every bit of information” about the assassination attempt and those involved in planning it. The agency’s admission of total accountability marks a rare moment of transparency but underscores the severity of what went wrong last July.

As the Trump administration continues to focus on law and order, the Butler attack remains a chilling reminder of rising political violence in America. With another heated campaign cycle ahead, many are demanding assurances that security lapses like those in Butler and West Palm Beach will never happen again.