The bipartisan House of Representatives task force investigating the assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump revealed on Monday that the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally was “preventable” and was partially caused by “inadequate planning and coordination” between the Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies.
The Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump released an interim staff report regarding the July 13 assassination attempt on Monday; however, a final report is expected to be released by December 13.
Monday’s report stated, “Although the findings in this report are preliminary, the information obtained during the first phase of the Task Force’s investigation clearly shows a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the rally.”
The House task force highlighted “eight key findings” in Monday’s interim staff report. In addition to the “inadequate planning and coordination” between the Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies regarding the July 13 rally in Butler, the task force said the Secret Service did not include the AGR building and the surrounding area as part of a secure perimeter and that local sniper teams inside the AGR building were not able to monitor the entire AGR property due to sniper teams being stationed inside the building with a “narrow field of vision.”
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The task force explained that a unified command post was not established to “facilitate communications” between local law enforcement agencies and the Secret Service, communication regarding the assassination suspect “moved slowly” as a result of “fragmented lines of communication and unclear chains of command,” Thomas Matthew Crooks used an air conditioning unit to access the AGR roof, local law enforcement agencies testified that they fired at Crooks before the Secret Service sniper fired at the suspect, and an autopsy report indicated that Crooks was killed by a single bullet.
Monday’s report concluded, “Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened.”
Trump was shot on July 13 by Crooks after the 20-year-old fired multiple shots from a roof outside the rally’s security perimeter. The former president was injured in the ear, while a retired fire chief was killed and two other rally attendees were injured in the incident. In the months following the assassination attempt, the Secret Service has faced significant criticism over its failure to protect the former president.
