After the July 13 assassination attempt on former (and, now, future) President Donald Trump, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security director Alejandro Mayorkas appointed a panel including partisan Democrat Janet Napolitano, who served as DHS boss for Obama. The panel’s report laments “deep flaws” within the U.S. Secret Service, “a troubling lack of critical thinking,” and a need for “fundamental reform” of the agency.

In similar style, the “Interim Staff Report: Investigating the Stunning Security Failures on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania,”from a congressional task force, charges the Secret Service with inadequate planning, and concludes that “the tragic events of July 13 were preventable.”

Both reports are more notable, however, for what they omit.

The congressional report denies the possibility of foreign involvement in the July 13 attempt, but neither document explores the possibility of domestic collaboration with shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, who so easily evaded security. The reports fail to explore Crooks’ background in any serious way, but that is hardly the only lapse.

Formerly a division of the Treasury Department, in 2003 the U.S. Secret Service became part of the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS was created after the failure of the FBI and CIA to prevent the events of Sept. 11, 2001. In other words, that massive failure of our bureaucracy launched the creation of yet another bureaucracy. A similar dynamic is going on within the Secret Service itself. This transformation is happening largely out of the public eye, and it dates back to the administration of Jimmy Carter.

The Georgia Democrat made a big deal about his alleged concerned for government efficiency, but instead of eliminating existing bureaucracy when he had the chance to make reforms, he created two new ones. The federal Department of Education was a payoff to the National Education Association, which endorsed his run for president. But Carter also backed the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which created the Senior Executive Service (SES), an agency established to “ensure that the executive management of the Government of the United States is responsive to the needs, policies, and goals of the Nation and otherwise is of the highest quality.” These officers were supposed to be a kind of “super-bureaucrat” recruiting from the best, who would ensure top performances in all the various agencies. That was the theory, but the performance of the SES has become another matter.

As Karlyn Barker of The Washington Post observed after the SES had been in place for a few years, few if any improvements in efficiency had occurred because of this elite group. One thing SES bosses have managed to find, however, is dissatisfaction with  pay. Between 2008 and 2011, the elite SES bosses bagged more than $340 million in bonuses, on top of annual salaries that ranged from $119,000 to $179,000. The bonuses were not subject to budget cuts, and along with their compensation, SES influence continued to surge.

The SES insignia is a gold keystone, and the agency boasts its own flag. The alleged best and brightest populate their ranks to:

serve in the key positions just below the top Presidential appointees. SES members are the major link between these appointees and the rest of the Federal workforce. They operate and oversee nearly every government activity in approximately 75 Federal agencies.

Thus positioned, the SES bosses are the equivalent of zampolits, Soviet political officers who enforced political orthodoxy and fidelity to the regime. Barack Obama was a big fan of the SES. “Strengthening the Senior Executive Service,” Obama’s 2015 executive order, sought to “facilitate career executive continuity between administrations.”

By May 31, 2016, agencies with 20 or more SES positions were tasked with developing a plan “to increase the number of SES members who are rotating to improve talent development, mission delivery and collaboration.” Obama’s real objective was to secure reinforcement for the administration of his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton, who then ended up losing to Donald Trump. After losing, Clinton announced the Russia hoax and Obama deployed the FBI and Department of Justice against Trump.

As it turns out, the Justice Department includes those elite, highly paid bosses from the Senior Executive Service. So does the Department of Homeland Security, from which the SES also deploys personnel into the Secret Service. Executive management “of the highest quality” was hardly evident on July 13.

A 20-year-old with no tactical experience avoided the Secret Service, scaled a rooftop, and got off eight shots, wounding Trump, killing audience member Corey Comperatore, and wounding two other attendees, James Copenhaver and David Dutch. For coincidence theorists, it was all pure happenstance, a crime of opportunity.

The congressional report mentions former Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, who would not even tell Congress how many shots Crooks had fired. On the other hand, the report from the Mayorkas DHS panel does not mention Cheatle, who was forced to resign. Such obfuscation can be expected from a panel including Janet Napolitano, who shifted DHS focus from Islamic terrorism to Obama’s domestic opposition.

Speaking of bureaucracies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was active against candidate and President Trump in 2016, and in 2022 raided Trump’s Florida home. This same FBI did nothing to prevent the July 13 assassination attempt against the former president and candidate. FBI director Christopher Wray absurdly claimed Trump might have been wounded by “shrapnel” not one of eight rifle shots from an ideal shooting position. The FBI has issued investigation updates, but at this writing the bureau has yet to release a full report. Two other cases also need attention. 

As the people might recall, the FBI still has no suspects in the July 2016 murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich, quite possibly the leaker of Hillary Clinton’s emails. The FBI has Rich’s computer but won’t reveal what was on it. The FBI likewise has no suspects in the February 2020 murder of Philip Haney, author of See Something Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad. The FBI grabbed Haney’s electronic devices and written materials but so far has not released the contents.

In September, Donald Trump escaped a second assassination attempt when Ryan Routh set up a sniper’s nest on a Florida golf course. Trump kept on campaigning, and on Nov. 5 regained the presidency by a wide margin, once again spoiling Obama’s succession plans. As in the Rich and Haney cases, information on the assassination attempts remains buried under layers of bureaucratic sediment. Trump needs to dig it out.

The deep state is truly fathomless. No Republican president, not even Ronald Reagan, moved to eliminate the federal Department of Education launched by Jimmy Carter. Trump and Elon Musk should make that their first target, and then Congress should take a hard look at Carter’s civil service act and the elitist bureaucracy it created.