Trump assassination attempt victims' attorney responds to Secret Service agents placed on administrative leave
EXCLUSIVE: PITTSBURGH — An attorney representing the two victims critically wounded in the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump said they are "happy to see some accountability" after U.S. Secret Service agents were placed on administrative leave following the shooting that left one man dead.
James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57, were critically wounded when they were both shot twice at the rally.
"We're happy to see some accountability. I think this is a step in the right direction for the federal government," Joseph Feldman, an attorney at the Law Offices of Max C. Feldman, LLC, told Fox News Digital in response to Fox's previous reporting that at least five USSS agents were placed on administrative leave.
But, Feldman added, he and his clients don't know "what the … agents in the Pittsburgh office have to say about the situation for themselves."
One member of Trump’s personal protective team and four members of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh Field Office, including the special agent in charge, were placed on administrative leave, meaning they are still employed but are teleworking and are no longer allowed in the field. They cannot do any investigative work.
"It's kind of been these overall blanket of statements coming directly from the top. Not as many statements coming from the actual officers or Secret Service agents involved in the incident itself," Feldman noted. "They could have these agents — maybe they did know what was going on that day, and maybe there were reports … that go up to the top, and they say, 'Hey, don't worry about it.'"
More information "will come to light" through the internal Homeland Security investigation or external congressional investigation into the incident, Feldman said. A potential lawsuit could also force government officials to share more information with the public about what exactly went wrong.
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"The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure," Anthony Guglielmi, the USSS chief of communications, said in a statement.
"The U.S. Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further."
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The House task force wants to hear from tipsters and whistleblowers to determine how 20-year-old Crooks was able to climb HVAC equipment and piping to get to the roof of the AGR building and hide there until he began shooting around 6:11 p.m.
The FBI said during a July press call that Crooks had a DPMS AR-15-style gun with a collapsible stock when he entered the area of the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds, where Trump's campaign rally took place.
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The Trump campaign announced the Butler rally July 3. Three days later, on July 6, Crooks signed up for the event. That same day, he researched how far Lee Harvey Oswald was from President Kennedy when Oswald assassinated him in 1963. On July 7, Crooks traveled to the rally site and spent approximately 20 minutes in the area, according to the FBI.
Crooks began taking shooting lessons in 2023, and he made 25 online gun-related purchases using an alias in the spring of 2023. His father legally purchased the AR-15-style rifle Crooks used at the rally, and he legally transferred it to his son.
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Rally attendees previously told Fox News Digital people were pointing to a person on the AGR roof before gunfire began. A video shared exclusively with Fox News Digital from Copenhaver's perspective at the rally shows a figure that appears to be Crooks clearly walking across the roof of the AGR building just three minutes before he began shooting.
"How do you get on a roof in an open field with people yelling that somebody's getting on a roof, with snipers … adjacent to them. … And you don't see him until he pops off his first round? That's their job. That's why they're there."
Authorities first reported seeing a suspicious person near the rally site at least an hour before Crooks began shooting, according to Congress and the FBI. Local law enforcement notified command about the suspicious person and received confirmation that the Secret Service was aware of his presence.
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It is still unclear how Crooks evaded security even after being noticed by law enforcement more than an hour before shots rang out. Trump took the podium around 6 p.m., an hour after he was scheduled to speak.
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Eleven minutes later, Crooks fired multiple rounds, killing 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, a husband and father of two girls who served as a fire chief for the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Department.
FBI officials are trying to determine Crooks' motive behind the assassination attempt and whether he had any co-conspirators, though the agency has said there are no signs to indicate there were others involved.
Fox News' David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.