WASHINGTON — The United States Secret Service’s counter sniper unit operated at nearly three-quarters below its required staffing level for four years, according to a Department of Homeland Security Inspector General review that stemmed from the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
The DHS auditor launched the review after a Secret Service sniper killed a gunman who opened fire from a rooftop at Trump’s July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year old local man, fired eight rounds into the crowd, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore and injuring two others before he was shot dead. Trump, then the presumptive Republican nominee, was grazed in the ear.
The inspector general’s office didn’t examine the actions of the counter sniper who fired that day because those circumstances are the subject of a separate investigation. Instead, it found systemic shortfalls in staffing and training that, the office warned, left protectees vulnerable during a period of rising political violence.
Between 2020 and 2024, the sniper team was “staffed 73 percent below the level necessary to meet mission requirements.” To cover events, the agency leaned on nearly 248,000 hours of overtime — the equivalent of 24 full-time employees each year — and borrowed shooters from other Homeland Security components. One agent worked 1,403 overtime hours in 2024 alone.
The auditors also found that some snipers failed mandatory firearms re-qualification tests but were still deployed. Training records showed none of the unit’s shooters re-qualified with daytime rifles in the second quarter of 2024, even as they worked 47 protective assignments for leaders including then-President Joe Biden.
“Failure to ensure appropriate staffing and training could result in injuries to or the assassination of our Nation’s most senior leaders and affect the entire country’s sense of safety,” the report said.
The inspector general attributed part of the shortage to Secret Service policy that required candidates to serve at least two years in the uniformed division before applying, slowing recruitment even as demand more than doubled. The agency reduced the requirement to 18 months last year and has begun offering targeted postings and retention bonuses. Officials project the team could reach authorized levels by 2026.
The watchdog urged the Secret Service to broaden recruiting to military and law enforcement personnel, craft a formal staffing plan and ensure only qualified shooters are deployed.
A separate Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee investigation, released July 13 on the anniversary of the Butler attack, described a “cascade of preventable failures” in the run-up to the shooting. Lawmakers detailed how requests for extra security were denied or ignored and how a warning from local police about a man with a rangefinder was not shared with Trump’s detail less than 30 minutes before the gunfire.
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