The new House task force investigating the attempted assassination of Trump made its first moves Monday, requesting documents and briefings from agencies involved in the shooting investigation.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe received a letter from Committee Chairmen Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Jason Crowe (D-Colo.), Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray.
Former President Donald Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. One attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two others were seriously injured. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear, causing bleeding but causing no serious damage.
The task force notified agency leaders that its own request should “supersede” that of any other member of Congress after House and Senate lawmakers demanded a range of information following the momentous tragedy.
The new House task force investigating the attempted assassination of Trump took its first steps Monday, requesting documents and briefings from agencies involved in the shooting investigation.
He requested reports from each agency and that all documents and evidence already submitted to Congress be gathered and handed over to the task force.
The task force was authorized in a rare unanimous vote in the House and is intended to consolidate numerous investigations that had been launched under different committees of jurisdiction.
Before that, the House Oversight Committee held a contentious hearing with former Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle that led to her resignation.
Rowe, who replaced Cheatle, told Congress last month that he had no explanation for why the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight shots was not better secured.
“I went to the roof of the AGR building where the shooter fired and lay face down to assess his line of sight. What I saw embarrassed me as a career law enforcement officer and 25-year veteran of the Secret Service. I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured,” he told Congress on Tuesday.
“When I was in that position I couldn’t and wouldn’t understand why there wasn’t better cover or at least someone looking at that roof line when that’s where they were positioned,” Rowe said, noting that Crooks’ head would have been clearly visible from the unmanned roof.
Rowe said that when he traveled to Butler he recreated the shooting to see how well a sniper should have been able to spot Crooks based on the slope of the roof.
Thirty seconds before Crooks fired, local police had radioed the Secret Service that there was a man with a rifle on the roof. About three and a half minutes earlier, they had “observed him on the roof.”
“Law enforcement ‘should have been on that roof and the fact that they were in the building is something I’m still trying to understand,” Rowe said when pressed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., about whistleblower reports that law enforcement was supposed to be stationed on the roof but wasn’t there because it was “too hot.”
The hearing descended into chaos at one point when Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asked whether anyone had been fired over the incident.
“Did the person who decided to send Donald Trump on stage know there was a security issue? Has he been relieved of his duties?” asked Hawley, a Missouri Republican.
“No, sir, they have not,” said Rowe.
‘The person who decided not to remove the former president from the stage when he knew that, according to his words, the residents were working in a serious security situation? Has he been relieved of his duties?’
—No, sir. Again, I refer you to my original response that we are investigating this through an assurance mission… —Rowe said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe received a letter from committee chairmen Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Jason Crowe, D-Colo. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray
“What else do you need to investigate? To know exactly what you need to investigate in order to find out what failures need to be held accountable? What else do you need to know?” Hawley said.
“Senator, you’re asking me to be quick to judge someone who has failed. I recognize that he was a failure,” Rowe added.
“Sir, this could have been our Texas School Book Depository,” he said, referring to the building from which Lee Harvey Oswald fatally shot President John F. Kennedy.
“I haven’t been able to sleep over it for the last 17 days. I will tell you, Senator, I will not rush to judgment, people will be held accountable and I will do it with integrity and I will not rush to judgment and have people unfairly persecuted. We need to be able to conduct a proper investigation into this.”