President Donald Trump picked the head of his personal security detail – who rushed to protect him during an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania – to lead the Secret Service.
Sean Curran was among the agents who leaped up to protect Trump after a bullet grazed his ear during the July rally. A person who attended the rally was killed and two others were seriously injured in the shooting.
“Sean is a Great Patriot, who has protected my family over the past few years, and that is why I trust him to lead the Brave Men and Women of the United States Secret Service,” Trump said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
“He risked his own life to help save mine from an assassin’s bullet,” Trump said in the statement.
Secret Service ripped for assassination attempt failures
Multiple investigations into the Secret Service’s response to the assassination attempt faulted the agency for failing to stop a “preventable” attack. The reports uncovered communication failures between Secret Service agents and local law enforcement who spotted the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, on a roof nearby more than an hour before he opened fire.
An independent investigation commissioned by former President Biden’s administration said the Secret Service had become “bureaucratic, complacent and static,” and that – if not reformed – another such attack “can and will” happen.
Kimberly Cheatle, the then-head of the Secret Service, resigned after the attack. Several other agents were placed on administrative duty. Curran was not mentioned in the reports or penalized.
The head of the Secret Service is appointed by the president and does not require Senate confirmation. A group of Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to require a confirmation hearing in response to the assassination attempt.
Curran was promoted to deputy special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Detail last month, after he guarded Trump for four years, according to CBS News. Curran also guarded former President Obama and worked in the dignitary protection division, Jonathan Wackrow, who worked as an agent with Curran, told the New York Times.
Donald Mihalek, a former Secret Service agent who worked with Curran in several capacities, said he is very smart and capable. However, he said the agency veteran is taking over at a time when it is dependent on outside support for its success.
“Sean has the background to lead but his and the agency’s success is going to be tied to the White House and congressional backing he and the agency receives,” Mihalek told USA TODAY.
On Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Secret Service’s mission “doubled, yet the funding and support needed from Congress has never kept pace and the agency is long overdue for a drastic increase in funding, personnel and H.R. changes to permit it to recruit and retain the best without adherence to political mandates,” Mihalek said.
A ‘serious operational failure’
The Secret Service – and Trump’s protective detail led by Curran – have came under fire for their handling of two assassination attempts against Trump last year: the Butler shooting and another incident characterized by the FBI as an assassination attempt at his South Florida golf course.
In the Pennsylvania shooting, the Secret Service was accused of allowing 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to climb atop a nearby roof and fire off eight shots at the Republican nominee − with a clear line of sight − before being killed by an agency countersniper.
After the shooting, Curran and other agents also allowed Trump to stand up, pump his fist repeatedly and say “Fight! Fight! Fight!” instead of keeping him down as they evacuated him from the stage.
That was a serious operational failure by the Secret Service that further endangered the lives of the presidential candidate and the agents protecting him in case he was still under threat from a potential second assailant, former Secret Service agents and other experts told USA TODAY.
“It was absolutely terrible coverage trying to get him out,” said former Secret Service Director John Magaw, who has scrutinized every frame of the videos. He did not single out Curran or any other agents for criticism but Curran can be seen in photos at Trump’s side almost immediately after the shooting.
In the second incident, in September, a Secret Service agent saw a man hiding in the bushes and pointing a rifle through a fence at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach while Trump was playing there.
Authorities later determined that alleged gunman Ryan Routh had spent 12 hours waiting in a wooded area adjacent to the golf course before aiming a semi-assault rifle in Trump’s direction, raising questions about why the Secret Service didn’t identify him earlier.
