What factors determine a “suspicious” person versus a “threat” has become a hotly debated topic in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, as well as FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, faced a grilling from lawmakers on Tuesday during a joint Senate panel with the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees.
Rowe, who took over as head of the Secret Service after former director Kim Cheatle’s resignation earlier this month, testified that Trump’s security detail didn’t have “any knowledge” there was an attacker on the roof with a gun prior to shots ringing out.
“It is my understanding those personnel were not aware that the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots,” he said. “Prior to that, they were operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working on issue of a suspicious individual prior to the shots being fired.”
Rowe said there are many suspicious situations at such events, and other suspicious situations were allegedly being investigated at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally site on July 13. Often these suspicious situations are defused with a law enforcement interview or investigation. Many of these suspicious incidents are often determined to be benign and are not enough to prompt protective action by the Secret Service.
The acting director explained that a threat presents itself when a “gun, weapon or IED” is presented.
Some senators sought to understand the often-nuanced delineation and how it factors into a Secret Service response.
Law enforcement members nationwide deal with “suspicious” incidents and people every day, many of which are defused by a short interview and investigation. For the Secret Service, political rallies are often filled with a range of suspicious activities — all of which tend to get investigated and defused.
These suspicious incidents include people arriving in costumes or carrying banners, cameras or other items that are investigated and assessed. Law enforcement members across the U.S. have come under increased scrutiny for using the term “suspicious” to justify otherwise unnecessary law enforcement activity, which is why suspicious activity needs to be investigated and vetted.
The identification of a threat occurs when a member of law enforcement, including the Secret Service, identifies facts and circumstances that establish behaviors indicating potential harm to another. The Department of Homeland Security — under which the Secret Service falls — defines a threat as a “natural or man-made occurrence, individual, entity or action that has or indicates the potential to harm life, information, operations, the environment and/or property.”
At the Butler site, as the acting director explained on Tuesday, the suspect arrived at the site and displayed suspicious behavior, none of which, per both the Secret Service and FBI testimony, rose to threatening behavior or was initially communicated to the Secret Service.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on July 13, a local SWAT officer identified the suspect as a suspicious person and took a photo of him, according to the FBI. That individual was under surveillance by the local police for about an hour. Approximately 25 minutes before the shooter opened fire — which would have been at about 5:46 p.m. — the Secret Service command post was notified about local law enforcement working a suspicious person, according to Abbate, but no other information was provided.
At no time did anyone from the local police or Secret Service interact with him to determine if the rangefinder he was seen using, and is a common tool for sports events and photographers, or his drone — which the gunman flew near the site hours before the shooting — were more than suspicious.
Absent that information, the Secret Service was not in a position nor has the legal authority to prevent a protectee from conducting an event, since it’s their job to secure it.
Had a short investigation of the suspicious individual taken place, then his suspicious conduct would have potentially immediately risen to a threat — which would have then informed the Secret Service’s actions, including potentially not letting Trump go on the stage due to a clear and active threat.
To be clear, there were failures here in the security plan, protective operation and communication, which officials have acknowledged — including Rowe, who told lawmakers he was “ashamed” of the protection failures that day.
At the hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that “the Secret Service job is like being in the military on steroids” when referring to the lifestyle. Although he neglected to add that during the campaign, it’s a full deployment of the agency’s resources and personnel.
The Secret Service has a daunting job but also has a long and historic track record of identifying and mitigating threats, which is why this incident shocked the nation.
