Corey Comperatore died shielding his family at Butler – and the Secret Service still hasn't answered for it.
Two men who took bullets that same day just filed federal lawsuits to make sure they do.
Discovery comes next – and the agency that hid classified threat intelligence from its own agents has no good answers waiting.
Secret Service Negligence Exposed in Federal Lawsuit
Butler rally attendees Jim Copenhaver and David Dutch filed federal lawsuits against the United States, demanding the Secret Service answer for the security collapse that put them in the hospital.
Copenhaver was shot twice – once in his left arm, once in the abdomen.
He underwent surgery to repair a traumatic abdominal hernia, reconstruct his colon, and close wounds that should never have existed.
Bullet fragments are still inside him and will require monitoring for the rest of his life.
He lost 30 pounds and now walks with a cane.
Dutch took a round to the chest that split his liver and exited his side. Multiple surgeries later, he's lost 25 pounds and can no longer drive or lift more than 10 pounds. He's a military veteran who survived a war without a scratch – then went to a Trump rally in Pennsylvania and got shot.
Both men and their wives are seeking more than $150,000 each in damages.
What matters is what the lawsuits force into a federal courtroom: the documented, undeniable, bipartisan-confirmed collapse of the Secret Service on July 13, 2024.
The agency failed to secure the AGR building Thomas Crooks used as a rifle perch.
Command never put out a radio alert about a suspicious man with a rangefinder in the area – even as local law enforcement was broadcasting warnings about him.
Counter-sniper David King watched Crooks crawl into position with an AR-15-style rifle and waited more than 15 seconds before returning fire.
A Senate report called it a "cascade of preventable failures” and a bipartisan House task force called the attack preventable.
Six agents were suspended – not fired, suspended – for 10 to 42 days.
FBI Withholds Thousands of Thomas Crooks Records as Lawsuit Forces Answers
The lawsuits are one front in a two-front war for the truth about Butler.
Judicial Watch has been fighting the FBI in court since July 2025, when the bureau finally responded to a FOIA request it had been ignoring since July 2024.
The FBI holds roughly 45,000 records on Thomas Crooks and has released them at a rate of about 50 pages per month.
What has come out is damning enough.
FBI records show law enforcement was broadcasting radio warnings about a suspicious male before the shooting started.
A witness told FBI agents she watched Crooks get into an altercation with rally attendees and make hateful comments about Trump – then climb the building minutes later.
Another witness confirmed the altercation.
The Secret Service heard the warnings. They knew about a suspicious man with a rangefinder. Multiple officers saw him on the roof. And Corey Comperatore still died shielding his family from bullets.
Some of those 45,000 records remain sealed by court order.
The FBI claims others are withheld to protect informant identities – a detail that raises its own disturbing questions about what the bureau actually knew before that day.
The Secret Service also received classified threat intelligence about a potential attack on Trump 10 days before Butler and did not share it with agents or local law enforcement running security at the event.
The Government Failed These Men and Needs to Answer for It
The Senate report didn't fully reckon with one thing: the Secret Service had been running on fumes for months before Butler.
A Senate investigation found the agency denied or left unfulfilled at least 10 requests from Trump's own detail for additional resources – enhanced counter-drone systems, counter-assault personnel, additional snipers.
Alejandro Mayorkas ran DHS and signed off on every one of those denials.
Dutch said it himself: the negligence was vast, it was terrible, and it should not have happened. Copenhaver carries bullet fragments in his body. Dutch can't drive. Comperatore's widow is raising their daughters without him.
A federal lawsuit is different from a Senate report. Discovery pulls documents into the open. Depositions put agents under oath. The same agency that received classified threat intelligence and chose not to share it now has to explain that decision to a federal judge – and for the first time, someone is going to have to answer for what happened in Butler.
Sources:
- Ken Silva, "Trump Assassination Attempt Victims Sue US Gov't over Secret Service Failures," Headline USA, June 2, 2026.
- Bradford Betz, "Butler Rally Shooting Survivors Blame Trump Assassination Attempt on Secret Service: 'Rush Job'," Fox News, October 14, 2024.
- "Judicial Watch: New FBI Records Reveal Warnings about Suspicious Individual before Trump Shooting in Butler," Judicial Watch, February 12, 2026.
- "Judicial Watch: FBI Records Reveal Altercation at Trump Rally Site before Shooting," Judicial Watch, April 17, 2026.
- Brooke Singman, "New Whistleblower Claims on First Trump Assassination Attempt 'Highly Damaging' to Secret Service: Hawley," Fox News, September 16, 2024.
