An independent, bipartisan review has identified “numerous errors” by the Secret Service and “specific failures and breakdowns” that enabled the assassination attempt that injured former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

The panel, made up of four former senior law enforcement and government officials, also warned of a catastrophic new security breach if the U.S. Secret Service does not immediately undertake “fundamental reform.”

“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static,” the committee wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the organization.

“The Secret Service as an agency needs fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” they added. “Without this reform, the independent review panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the review. A spokesperson previously told NBC News that the agency had “developed a plan for an agency-wide paradigm shift” to address known issues regarding staffing, training and use of technology.

“The increasing demands placed on the agency in this dynamic threat environment have stretched our people to the limit,” said Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service. “We recognize that this is not sustainable and we cannot risk further failure of our mission. »

The panel conducted fifty-eight, multi-hour interviews with individuals from the Secret Service, federal, state and local law enforcement and reviewed more than 7,000 documents, according to its report. Panel members and personnel also traveled to Butler where they inspected the site of the assassination attempt.

The group said it had identified “deep flaws in the Secret Service, some of which appear systemic or cultural,” including a “lack of critical thinking among Secret Service personnel” and agents’ reluctance to “speak out” about potential threats.

Long list of failures

The new report mirrors much of what has been previously reported about Secret Service failures before and during the July 13 rally. No member of the Secret Service or any other federal state or local law enforcement agency, for example, was specifically tasked with securing the roof of the building from which the shooter shot Trump.

Attenuating the line of sight between the building and the scene with physical barriers when necessary should have been standard operating procedure for the Secret Service and “represents a critical security failure,” according to the study.

Former President Trump’s Secret Service did additional work before the rally, including a push against snipers, particularly because the personal details of Trump’s chief and deputy chief had been read on intelligence “linked to a long-range threat against the former president.” Trump by a foreign actor, but not specifically at the Butler rally.

The Trump campaign later said that Trump had been briefed by U.S. intelligence officials on Iran’s “real and specific threats” to assassinate him.

“Ironically, Crooks’ method of attempted assassination embodied the very kind of threat that intelligence was warning against,” the report concluded.

In a footnote, the report notes that “the Panel encountered evidence that Trump campaign staff expressed resistance regarding the placement of certain heavy equipment and/or vehicles at the site,” which could have be used to mitigate site risks.

The report states that it is ultimately the responsibility of the Secret Service to ensure that appropriate mitigation measures are in place and to “escalate discrepancies between campaign staff and the service to their appropriate resolution.”

Two hours before the assassination attempt, Crooks was able to fly a drone over the rally site at 3:51 p.m. for approximately 11 minutes. His drone was not detected because the Secret Service’s counter-drone system had a technical problem and remained inoperable for several hours. Ultimately, the system didn’t start working until more than half an hour after Crook used the drone.

The report also describes the failure of Secret Service or local law enforcement to find Crooks, although he was first identified as a suspect more than ninety minutes before he opened fire on Trump.

Crooks was first identified by a member of the local counter-sniper team about to leave duty. He texted other counter-snipers to warn them that Crooks had slipped into a parking lot that was supposed to be off-limits and blocked by physical barriers.

More importantly, Trump’s Secret Service leadership was never notified of anyone acting suspiciously in the crowd before the former president took the stage, nor in the minutes after Crooks positioned on the roof of the building and prepared to fire.

It was not until 6:09 p.m., 4 minutes after Trump began speaking, that a Pennsylvania State Trooper stationed with the Secret Service in the security room verbally indicated that Crooks was the suspicious individual who was roaming the scene and was now on the roof. of a building.

The Secret Service security room did not have a direct view of the rally scene and “did not have an operational incident command system for centralized reporting and tracking of events and issues that occurred.”

The panel recommended a series of reforms to be implemented by the Secret Service as soon as possible, such as aerial surveillance for outdoor events, additional training and the creation of a central communications and incident tracking center for major events. The committee also recommended that all participating law enforcement agencies be included.

Perhaps most surprising is that the panel did not believe that lack of funding was an underlying factor in the Secret Service’s failure. The agency’s budget has nearly doubled over the past decade, from about $1.8 billion in fiscal 2014 to more than $3 billion, according to government documents.

During the same period, the agency’s workforce increased by almost 25%, to more than 8,100 people. They include about 3,200 special agents and 1,300 uniformed officers, according to the agency’s website.

The report concludes that the agency’s failures go beyond spending. “Even an unlimited budget alone would not be enough to remedy many of the failures of July 13,” he said.