WASHINGTON (AP) — The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania in July was “preventable and should not have happened,” according to a bipartisan House panel investigating the shooting and what it called its “stunning security lapses.” at the event.
The report from a House of Representatives task force, released Monday, is just the latest look at the cascading and far-reaching law enforcement failures that preceded the July 13 shooting at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was shot by gunfire was hit in the ear. One demonstrator was killed in the shooting and two others were injured.
Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate have repeatedly questioned why the Secret Service, an agency charged with protecting the country’s top leaders, did not communicate better with local authorities during the campaign rally, especially when it came to to secure the building, which was generally agreed to pose a security threat, but was ultimately left so unprotected that gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb up and fire.
Lawmakers in their report focus on “the fragmented lines of communication and unclear command structures” between the Secret Service and Pennsylvania state and local police, but lay most of the blame for the security failures on the Secret Service.
“Federal, state and local law enforcement officers could have called in Thomas Matthew Crooks at several crucial times,” the report said. Lawmakers added that throughout the afternoon, “as Crooks’ behavior became increasingly suspicious, fragmented lines of communication allowed Crooks to evade law enforcement” and climb onto the unsecured roof where he would eventually open fire.
“Simply put, the evidence the Task Force has obtained to date demonstrates that the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have occurred,” the report continued.
The preliminary findings are drawn from thousands of pages of documents, nearly two dozen transcribed interviews with state and local officials, as well as a series of both classified and non-classified briefings from senior officials in the Secret Service and the FBI.
The report is hardly new, as the Secret Service’s botched response has already been documented by an independent commission, a Senate interim report, as well as congressional testimony and news media investigations. The House of Representatives report, like previous reports, does not identify specific individuals who may be guilty.
But The Associated Press has previously reported that at least five Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty. Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned shortly after the shooting, saying she took full responsibility for the shooting.
The task force – made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats – presented some of the report’s findings at a public hearing last month. Lawmakers say they plan to issue a final report in mid-December, including recommendations to prevent future assassination attempts on political candidates.
The task force has also begun investigating Trump’s second assassination attempt last month, in which a man with a gun camped outside one of his golf courses in South Florida.
