OAN Staff Abril Elfi
3:16 PM – Tuesday, September 2, 2025
A recent watchdog report has suggested that the United States Secret Service counter-sniper teams are drastically understaffed, lacking a sufficient amount of marksmen.
The report, released by Inspector General Joseph Cufari on Tuesday, also reportedly shows certain shortcomings and strategic failures that the agency is currently facing.
“The United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) Counter-Sniper Team (CS) is staffed 73 percent below the level necessary to meet mission requirements,” the report warned. “Failure to appropriately staff CS could limit the Secret Service’s ability to properly protect our Nation’s most senior leaders, risking injury or assassination, and subsequent national-level harm to the country’s sense of safety and security.”
“Given its chronic understaffing, CS relied on overtime and leveraged personnel from other Department of Homeland Security components to meet mission requirements,” the report added.
The watchdog report revealed that the U.S. Secret Service logged nearly a quarter million hours of overtime to maintain staffing for their counter-sniper team from the years 2021 to 2024 — when former President Joe Biden was in office.
During the 2024 election and Trump’s inauguration in January, the Secret Service also borrowed personnel from other agencies — occasionally using marksmen who did not fully meet the typically required criteria for protective detail.
“Some counter snipers did not meet mandatory weapons requalification requirements,” the report warned. “Counter snipers who missed mandatory weapons requalification sessions (i.e., retesting their ability to shoot accurately in the daytime and at night), nonetheless supported 47 of the 426 events (11 percent) attended by protectees in calendar year 2024.”
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