BURSTThe House select committee that investigated the two assassination attempts against President-elect Trump released a report on Tuesday that found the July 13 attack at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., was “preventable and should not have happened.”
The report determined that there was not a “singular moment or decision” that led to the near-assassination, but that it was the result of “various failures in planning, execution, and leadership…[that] coalesced to create an environment in which the former President—and everyone at the campaign event—were exposed to grave danger.”
Many of the committee’s findings have been explored by other investigatory reports, including the failure to recognize the security risks associated with the AGR building from which shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks fired, insufficient monitoring and manpower before the during the event, and technology issues that kept various law enforcement entities from communicating with one another.
While Trump survived the attack with only an injured ear, the shooter killed one rally attendee and critically wounded two others.
“These technology and communication breakdowns hindered law enforcement’s pursuit of Crooks and caused missed opportunities to intervene. The breakdowns also interrupted the flow of information that should have been passed to Secret Service personnel with the ability to remove the former President from the stage,” the report determined.
The findings align closely with an internal review drafted by the Secret Service in September.
And acting Director Ronald Rowe has been sharply critical of his own agency since taking the reins after his predecessor Kimberly Cheatle stepped down shortly after the attack after a disastrous congressional appearance in which she refused to answer basic questions about the shooting and was accused of lacking candor.
Rowe has said the agency needs to have a paradigm shift, faulting complacency for failing to reckon with the potential for attacks against its protectees. He’s asked for increased funding as the agency has faced pressure to improve their technology and expand their agent pool.
But he’s also defended the agency’s performance during a second assassination attempt, when an increased number of agents spotted and thwarted an attack from Ryan Wesley Routh outside Trump’s Palm Beach golf course in September.
Tuesday’s report, however, was more critical, arguing Routh should not have been able to get so close to the fenceline.
“Unfortunately, the property was subject to critical vulnerabilities, particularly related to its outer perimeter, which the Secret Service had previously identified as a favorable position for potential snipers,” they said.
The report recommends doing enhanced sweeps of the property, whether through drones, golf carts, or “redundancies” in service personnel.
The select committee’s investigation included three site visits to Butler, Pa., West Palm Beach, Fla, and Quantico, Va.; 46 transcribed interviews with law enforcement officials; more than 18,000 pages of documents; and five subpoenas, among other investigatory actions.
The task force report said, however, that Department of Homeland Security policies “restricted certain important documents to in-camera review,” asserting that “the overclassification of documents hindered the Task Force’s investigation.” Outstanding committee requests include transcribed interviews conducted by DHS and agreements signed between Secret Service and other law enforcement aiding that day. The agency also failed to reveal who has been placed on administrative leave – something Rowe has also declined to respond to questions about citing privacy.
While the group of lawmakers on the committee prided themselves on working in a bipartisan fashion, there were some points of tension as it investigated the attack and held public hearings on it.
In a hearing last week Rowe engaged in a shouting match with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), saying the lawmakers line of questioning about his positioning at the 9/11 event was politicizing the tragedy.
And in a September hearing, Democrats on the panel boycotted a panel that included Reps. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), who had launched their own “independent” investigation into the assassination attempt, and used their expertise as snipers to provide insights about the security perimeter around the rally.