The House of Representatives panel releases report on the first assassination attempt on Trump

CNN
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The House task force investigating the first assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump released its interim report Monday, which included excerpts from new testimony from local law enforcement officials who gave firsthand accounts of a lack of communication and security lapses at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. reported.

Based on 23 interviews with local law enforcement officials and thousands of pages of documents from various agencies, the bipartisan task force concluded that “the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened.”

The report could put more pressure on the leadership of the U.S. Secret Service after an independent Department of Homeland Security panel called for a complete overhaul of leadership.

Testimony from unnamed Butler officials included in the report describes the chaotic sequence of events from the initial discovery of Trump rally shooter Thomas Crooks by local officials to the time Crooks was finally shot down.

For example, a local emergency services officer testified that he texted his colleague at 5:17 p.m. that Crooks had a rangefinder, but that colleague did not see the message until around 5:40 p.m. It is unclear whether these local officials notified their leadership. The task force noted that they had seen Crooks' rangefinder while trying to track him down.

According to the report, the task force also did not receive evidence indicating that word from local law enforcement about Crooks' possession of a gun reached Trump's intelligence division before shots were fired.

The House of Representatives voted on July 24 to create a bipartisan task force to investigate the assassination attempt. It will publish a final report on its findings no later than December 13, “including any recommendations for legislative reforms necessary to prevent future security breaches,” according to the text of the resolution passed by the House of Representatives.