(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Headline USA has exclusively obtained the Butler County Department of Emergency Services’ after-action report, which details previously undisclosed security failures that took place at the July 13 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
At the July 13 Trump rally, Butler County EMS was primarily focused on the heat-related medical issues experienced by hundreds of attendees. After the shooting, the EMS switched its focused to coordinating the medical response.
By all accounts, the Butler County EMS performed its duties competently. Its after-action report—which Headline USA finally obtained Tuesday after a lengthy legal battle—does identify some local areas that need improvement, while also revealing new Secret Service errors.
According to the after-action report, the Secret Service didn’t visit Butler Memorial Hospital before the rally. The report quotes a BMH official, whose name is redacted.
“With that, 4 (ish) years ago when there was a rally at the airport, the Secret Service did a site inspection here at BMH. That did not occur this time. Thankfully, I had the plan from that time and did meet with key staff members on my way to the event that day—apprising them of plan should anything occur,” the unnamed BMH official is quoted saying.
But while agents had a four-year-old plan, the EMS report discloses—for the first time publicly—that agents didn’t follow it.
“The SS member who brought the President here deviated from that plan and entered through the ambulance bay (should have been the emergency exit by ER Room 8) for whatever reason upon getting to the facility,” the BMH official said, according to the report.
The BMH official further explained that the Secret Service’s deviation may have allowed a patient’s family member to capture video of Trump’s motorcade outside of the hospital—suggesting that Trump was still vulnerable due to the Secret Service not following its own plan.
Along with revealing this new, previously undisclosed security failure at the hospital, the EMS after-action report also noted that the Secret Service’s command center was separate from the local communications trailer—a failure that has been well-documented through congressional investigations.
The EMS report described this failure in blunt terms: “We had the County Command Post trailer on site, which (should) have had Command staff from each agency inside working alongside and COMMUNICATING with one another, but we did not … Secret Service and PSP had their own command post, and all requests for emergency services from the secret service field staff went to Steve, who then had to relay it via radio to Operations.”
Additionally, the EMS report identified other previously undisclosed local areas of concern. Those concerns include the fact that the local Emergency Operations Center wasn’t properly activated. EOCs are supposed to be activated when a state or local emergency is declared, or when special events require resources beyond what local municipalities can handle.
According to an EMS official whose name was redacted, EOC activation was requested “due to the plethora of calls we received from Media, and family of victims/ unaccounted for rally goers.”
However, “Our request was denied due to no EMA representatives available being as they were all at the rally, and unable to leave the crime scene. That request being denied is simply unacceptable,” the EMS official said, according to the report.
The report also detailed how dispatchers were confused about the various call signs from all the different units who responded to Butler.
“It is understood that our command post knew the unit calls signs for accountability, however once the event turned to a critical incident, dispatchers overseeing the channels had no accountability, nor ability to send backup if requested during the attempted clearing of the building once inside of AGR,” the report said.
Headline USA initially requested the Butler EMS after-action report in December, after learning of its existence in interview transcripts released by the J13 House Task Force.
Butler County initially denied the open records request on the grounds that the after-action report was an investigatory document, and therefore not subject to public disclosure. Headline USA appealed the denial, and successfully argued that after-action reports have long been subject to disclosure under Pennsylvania law.
After this publication submitted its arguments in appeal, Butler County reversed its position and offered to provide the report—as long as it could redact the names of the officials quoted within. Headline USA agreed to those terms on Friday, and received the report hours ago.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
