The House of Representatives voted unanimously to establish a bipartisan task force to closely examine the events that led to the near-assassination of Donald Trump earlier this month.
The vote was 416-0.
The group will be made up of 13 members, seven Republicans and six Democrats. The decision came after a series of three congressional hearings this week on the issue, including one with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, which prevented her resignation.
A Judiciary Committee hearing included testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray, and the Homeland Security Committee heard testimony from Pennsylvania law enforcement officials and visited the scene of the shooting.
Having three separate jurisdictional committees was what led leaders to establish a panel focused exclusively on the shooting.
The House voted unanimously to establish a bipartisan task force to closely examine the events that led to the near-assassination of Donald Trump earlier this month.
“The security failures that enabled an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking. … The task force will be empowered to issue subpoenas and will act swiftly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make sure such failures do not happen again,” House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement.
The task force is similar to one created after the 9/11 attack and another formed after January 6, 2021.
It is not yet clear who will be appointed to the task force.
Controversy has already brewed over who will fill the committee seats. The right-wing House Freedom Caucus released a statement urging leaders to keep the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, off the panel. Thompson spearheaded a bill that would strip Secret Service protégés of their status if they were convicted of a felony.
Thompson later said he had not expressed any interest in serving on the task force.
Even after three separate hearings, many questions remain.
They wondered why a rooftop within rifle range of the stage was outside the rally’s security perimeter, and they scratched their heads when Secret Service Director Cheatle insisted that no agents had been placed on that roof because it was “tilted.”
The FBI and Secret Service revealed to lawmakers last week that they identified shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks as a person of interest 62 minutes before he fired.
Twenty minutes elapsed between the time Secret Service agents saw Crooks with a gun on the rooftop and the time he shot the President.
In a stunning moment, Cheatle admitted Monday that his agents on the ground were warned between two and five times that there was a “suspicious person” reported before Trump took the stage.
As Trump walked away with little more than a bloodied ear, Crooks killed former fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, and seriously injured two other rally attendees who were sitting near where the former president was speaking last weekend before he was subdued.
Cheatle offered answers that were deemed woefully inadequate by lawmakers in both parties about why there was no officer stationed on the roof from which Crooks opened fire on the former president, and why Trump was allowed on stage even when a threat was detected.
Wray also told lawmakers that the 20-year-old gunman flew a drone 200 yards from the scene just two hours before he opened fire in Butler, Pennsylvania, and that he had three explosives in his car.
Wray said Crooks had been “interested in public figures” and “around July 6 was very focused on former President Trump and his rally.”
The director said an analysis of Crooks’ laptop revealed he had Googled “how far was Oswald from Kennedy” on July 6. That was the same day he registered to attend Butler’s rally.
Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed former President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Wray said eight bullet casings had been recovered from the ceiling where Crooks shot the former president.
And he did not rule out that Crooks had accomplices in the crime, saying it was still being investigated by police.
On the day of the rally, Trump took the stage at 6:02 p.m.
Then, at around 6:12 p.m., Crooks’ first shots were heard.
Cheatle could not tell lawmakers how the shooter got to the roof.
At the time of the shooting, police officers were inside the building, 147 yards from where Trump was standing, but not on top of it.
What unfolded was a security nightmare: Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to scale the building and secure his position, while law enforcement struggled to locate him, even amid urgent warnings from members of Trump’s camp. But there was not enough time to act on the tips, he said.
“The shooter was identified as a potential suspect,” Cheatle said. “Unfortunately, with the rapid succession of events, when that individual was finally located, he was on the roof and was able to shoot the former president.”
She was referring to witness statements that they alerted law enforcement about the threat, but officers were unable to eliminate it in time. Officials pointed to the officer who initially responded, who stood up from the roof and ducked back down when the gunman pointed his gun at him.
