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And instead of holding the line, the agents gave in.
The plan to block the sniper’s view was replaced with a weak attempt involving a “jumbotron and a large flag.” That makeshift barrier did nothing to stop the assassin, who simply climbed the AGR building and started shooting—with a clear view of Trump and the crowd.
Security Collapse, Covered Up
Even worse, the junior agents who made this boneheaded decision didn’t bother to tell their superiors.
The report reveals that high-ranking officials—including Tim Burke, head of the Pittsburgh Field Office, and Sean Curran, now the agency’s director—were “unaware [that] the advance team chose not use the farm equipment to address the line-of-sight vulnerability based on input from a staffer.”
“If the Secret Service advance team would have informed someone in a leadership position, Secret Service leadership could have played a role in ensuring a suitable alternative line-of-sight mitigation solution was implemented,” Grassley’s report states.
But no one said a word. And Trump nearly paid for that silence with his life.
Slaps on the Wrist for Deadly Mistakes
The two main agents at the heart of this scandal? Myosoty Perez and Meredith Bank.
Perez, a rookie agent with just 3.5 years under her belt and zero experience leading large-scale outdoor security events, served as the site agent. Bank, the lead agent, came from the Pittsburgh Field Office with far more experience—including time on a vice-presidential detail.
Yet both failed spectacularly. Neither secured the AGR building. Neither ensured the original plan was followed. Neither stopped the threat.
And their punishment? A joke.
Perez received the “harshest” penalty—a 42-day suspension without pay. Bank got even less. For a failure that could’ve led to a presidential assassination, these consequences are laughable.
“Most Americans would get fired on the spot for screwing up this badly at their jobs,” one observer commented.
Insiders Blow the Whistle
Not everyone is buying the official story that senior officials were clueless.
“I don’t understand how senior Secret Service agents could say that they had no idea that we deviated from the plan,” one Secret Service source told RealClearPolitics. “Because that should have come up during the walk through and count-down meetings and the plans diagrams would have reflected farm equipment.”
“To change it, supervisors would have to have asked. I call bull s**t on that.”
It gets worse. Grassley’s report also revealed that agents on the ground were kept in the dark about a serious threat from Iran—intelligence uncovered 10 days before the rally. Supervisors were told, but not the junior agents or local law enforcement responsible for Trump’s safety.
White House Tries to Spin
Now the White House is scrambling to spin the mess.
“As the Trump campaign stated at the time, the [Secret Service] request [to use farm equipment] was not denied,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, trying to downplay the optics controversy. “The request was discussed… with the understanding that Secret Service is ultimately responsible for line-of-sight concerns.”
Translation: The staffer whined, and the agents folded.
Too Little, Too Late
A new policy now requires documentation and supervisor sign-off for any site plan changes. Great—except it won’t undo what happened.
It won’t bring back Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who lost his life. It won’t heal the trauma felt by Trump and those injured at the rally. And it certainly won’t fix the gaping hole in trust Americans once had in the Secret Service.
This wasn’t just a slip-up. It was gross, criminal-level negligence fueled by vanity and incompetence.
And the fact that these agents still have jobs is a disgrace.
