A bipartisan congressional task force is investigating the assassination attempts Donald Trump Its first hearing is scheduled for Thursday, as lawmakers scramble to ensure candidates are safe just weeks before the election. US presidential election,
The panel — which includes seven Republicans and six Democrats — has spent the past two months figuring out why A security lapse allowed a gunman to climb onto the roof and fired a shot at the former president during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, killing a spectator. They are now also investigating the Secret Service’s arrest this month of a man with a rifle at Trump’s Florida golf course who also allegedly tried to assassinate the GOP presidential nominee.
suspect in second attempted murder, Ryan Wesley RouthRouth was reportedly aiming a rifle at a target in the bushes surrounding Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course when he was apprehended by a Secret Service agent. The agent opened fire, and Routh fled before being captured by local authorities.
Rep. Jason Crow, the top Democrat on the task force, said the group is now “taking a long-term, holistic look at both Butler and Florida.”
Thursday’s hearing will mark the first time the task force will present its findings to the public. The task force conducted nearly two dozen interviews with law enforcement agencies over several weeks and received more than 2,800 pages of documents from the Secret Service. It will focus on the Secret Service’s use of local law enforcement agencies, including testimony from Pennsylvania state and Butler County police officers.
The Secret Service often relies on local authorities to secure large events where protectees like Trump travel around the country. But after the Butler rally, the Secret Service was heavily criticized for failing to clearly communicate to local agencies what was required of them that day.
Thursday’s session will be the fourth congressional hearing about the Butler shooting since July. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned a day after appearing at a congressional hearing where she was rebuked for hours by both Democrats and Republicans for the agency’s security failures.
Cheatle called the Trump assassination attempt the Secret Service’s “greatest operational failure” in decades, but he infuriated lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation.
An interim report on Wednesday from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is also conducting an investigation, said the Secret Service failed to provide clear instructions on how state and local authorities should cover the building where the gunman eventually set up his hideout. Their report also said the agency did not ensure they could share information in real time with local partners.
The Secret Service has also released a five-page document summarizing the main findings of the agency’s so far final report on what went wrong at Butler. The House panel is expected to propose a series of legislative reforms and issue its final report before December 13.
Though the oversight probe has been bipartisan, Democrats and Republicans disagree on whether to give the Secret Service more money in light of its failures. The government funding bill passed Wednesday includes an additional $231 million for the agency, though many Republicans were skeptical and said the Secret Service needs internal reform.
As lawmakers prepare to investigate a second assassination attempt in Florida, they are also grappling with key differences between the two assassination attempts.
“It’s going to be different in a number of ways. I mean, the size of the incident was very different. The use of local law enforcement was very different. The challenges were different,” Crowe said. “Whereas in Butler, there’s a very clear series of failures.”
The Colorado lawmaker said the Justice Department and FBI have also informed Congress that given the ongoing criminal investigation into what happened in Florida and the prosecution of Routh, it will be more challenging for them to turn over documents or subpoena witnesses to testify.
Butler shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was killed by a sniper,