The agency has confirmed that six agents were suspended without pay after a gunman nearly assassinated the president in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July. The suspensions ranged from 10 to 42 days without pay and affected supervisors and line-level agents.
No agents were fired, as the Secret Service told Fox News that it was the entire agency that failed, not the individuals.
Ken Valentine, who served 24 years with the Secret Service, including 10 years with the Presidential Protection Detail, does not expect to find out much more about what happened.
"I suspect that the six that we're talking about were in that GS-13 to GS-15 range," he tells AFN. "We already know that they got rid of or forced the resignation of all these senior executive service – from the director to deputy director, assistant director, and deputy assistant director level – a multitude of people."
Valentine is not confident the Senate report, set to be released any day now, will reveal anything new about the Secret Service's failures in Butler.
"I expect almost nothing from the Senate report," he states. "The reports that they've released so far have been written on about a fourth-grade level; they've revealed next to nothing. I will not lose any sleep waiting for the release of yet another Senate report that tells me next to nothing."
He laments that the government seems unable to get to the bottom of anything, especially not quickly or thoroughly.
"We're shutting the door in the wake of Butler," Valentine says.
Meanwhile, Deputy Director Matt Quinn recently told CBS News that the Secret Service is "laser focused on fixing the root cause of the problem."
Additionally, the agency has reportedly introduced a new fleet of military-grade drones and mobile command posts to improve radio communications with local law enforcement since the Butler rally.
In that now-famous scene, then-candidate Trump stood with a bloodied ear and defiantly rallied the crowd by chanting "Fight!" as Secret Service agents led him off stage.
Salina Zito, a New York Post columnist, was feet away from Trump during the assassination attempt. She told Fox News she has asked Trump about that famous moment. He told her he wanted the rest of the country to know he was okay, and to urge fellow Americans to be resilient and to stay strong.
