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A shocking new report will add fuel to the fire of criticism the U.S. Secret Service is facing following the unsuccessful assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump last month.

Rancor, recriminations, and serious formal misconduct complaints have affected all levels of the Secret Service detail assigned to protect Trump over the past year, diverting the team’s focus from its primary mission of ensuring Trump’s physical safety and preventing an assassination, RealClearPolitics’ Susan Crabtree reported.

Internal conflicts, lengthy workdays and weeks, and ongoing stress have plagued Trump’s regular detail team, which consists of 60 special agents and support staff. Last year, the team experienced the loss of one of its members to suicide, she wrote.

Among the allegations are claims of improper sexual relationships or fraternization within the team, severe mental health issues, promotions not based on merit, conflicts of interest, unfair retaliation, and the creation of inappropriate memes and social media posts, Crabtree noted further.

Sean Curran, the leader of Trump’s 60-member protective detail, and his deputy, Matthew Piant, expressed concerns about “rumors, innuendo, and toxicity” within the team, as well as issues of “selfishness and immaturity.”

They reminded all employees of their efforts to mentor and train them and noted that, despite witnessing violations, they had avoided referring agents and support staff for disciplinary action to agency headquarters for investigation up to this point, the report said.

Crabtree added:

Curran and Piant complained that they were not getting the same treatment in response from the team. Over the last year, the two leaders have been the target of formal complaints, and some members on the team viewed the all-hands lecture as an effort to turn the tables and retaliate on those complaining about their leadership.

Piant spoke first, accusing someone on the detail of stealing from another. But he quickly shifted to harshly condemning an incident in which a teammate took cellphone photos of two members of the support staff sleeping in a command post while guarding Mar-a-Lago and circulated those to others on the detail.

The second-in-command labeled the prank a betrayal intended for “humor and gossip,” according to detailed accounts. He argued that those who found the sleeping team members should have simply held them accountable by waking them with a nudge.

Piant also contended that taking and sharing photos of team members who had fallen asleep compromised their safety and endangered the mission. He told the entire team that such pranks and divisiveness demonstrated a “lack of basic human decency,” which had caught the attention of headquarters “at the highest levels,” according to sources familiar with the meeting. He then announced an investigation into potential policy violations and warned of consequences for those exhibiting “bad judgment,” Crabtree wrote.

However, some rank-and-file members of the detail, familiar with the sleeping incident, expressed frustration that the individuals who had fallen asleep while guarding Mar-a-Lago were reportedly never disciplined. They pointed out that at least one of these individuals was the daughter of a retired former Secret Service leader who still held influence among the agency’s top brass, said the report.

Critics argued that sleeping on the job at Mar-a-Lago this spring was particularly egregious given a series of recent security breaches within the Secret Service. One notable incident involved a drunken intruder entering the home of Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in the middle of the night. This breach occurred in April 2023, despite Sullivan having round-the-clock Secret Service protection due to the high-profile and sensitive nature of his role, Crabtree noted, citing her sources.

After Piant, Curran expressed deep disappointment in the team, emphasizing that the pranksters had jeopardized their teammates’ safety merely for amusement.

Towards the end of the virtual meeting, Curran issued a final warning to the entire team. He stated that while he preferred not to report the violations of a few individuals to headquarters, he might be compelled to do so if the team did not begin to support one another, Crabtree noted.

In the past two weeks, the Secret Service inspections department, which handles investigations of employee misconduct, has focused on allegations against an agent from the Trump detail. This agent, who played a crucial role in the security plan for the Butler rally, is under scrutiny for contributing to the plan’s serious flaws that allowed shooter Thomas Crooks to exploit vulnerabilities, said the report.

“The agent in question served as the official site agent for the July 13 Butler event that ended in an assassination attempt wounding Donald Trump in the ear and killing rally-goer Corey Comperatore in front of his family. RealClearPolitics is not naming the agent out of concern for her personal safety,” Crabtree wrote, adding: “Sources within the Secret Service say the site agent was inexperienced for such a critical security role but noted that the position is rotated throughout the Trump detail, not routinely assigned based on merit or experience.”

She also made social media posts while stationed at Mar-a-Lago. Crabtree said there are rumblings that the agent could be fired over those posts but not her failings at the Butler rally.

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