House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has subpoenaed United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify before the committee over the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania last week.
“The Oversight Committee is investigating the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump. The Oversight Committee is subpoenaing you, Director of Secret Service, to appear for a public hearing on July 22, 2024, titled ‘Oversight of the U.S. Secret Service and the Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump,'” Comer wrote to Cheatle in a letter:
The assassination attempt of the former President and current Republican nominee for president represents a total failure of the agency’s core mission and demands Congressional oversight. Despite allowing you to speak with the media, both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Secret Service have failed to provide assurances regarding your appearance at the Oversight Committee’s scheduled hearing, thereby necessitating the attached subpoena. [Emphasis added]
On the day of the deadly attack, the Committee sent a written request for your voluntary attendance at a public hearing on July 22, 2024. The Committee next wrote to you on July 15, 2024, requesting specific information in anticipation of your testimony at the July 22 public hearing. Initially, the Secret Service committed to your attendance. Subsequently, however, DHS officials appear to have intervened and your attendance is now in question. In addition, since DHS’s intervention, there have been no meaningful updates or information shared with the Committee. The lack of transparency and failure to cooperate with the Committee on this pressing matter by both DHS and the Secret Service further calls into question your ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the attached subpoena compelling your appearance before the Oversight Committee. [Emphasis added]
As details of the security failures around the assassination attempt come to light, Cheatle has faced calls to resign from her position — a move she has refused to take.
On July 13, the day of the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally and the attempted assassination of Trump, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was flagged at a security screening after doors opened at 1:00 p.m. after he was found with a magnetometer and carrying a range finder, tools often used by long-distance shooters.
An hour before the attempted assassination, Crooks was spotted around the American Glass Research (AGR) complex by a law enforcement officer.
At least 30 minutes before the attempted assassination, a different law enforcement officer called in to authorities that a suspicious person was scoping the area and grounds of the rally. That officer took a photo of Crooks on the ground. Another officer checked the grounds of the rally but did not see Crooks.
About 26 minutes before the attempted assassination, a Beaver County Emergency Services Unit (ESU) team member stationed inside the AGR complex noticed Crooks scoping out a roof near the rally and calls it in. The ESU team member also took a photo of Crooks.
About 11 minutes before the attempted assassination, the ESU team member sent the photo he took of Crooks to command, warning them to be on the lookout for him. The team member then sees Crooks returning to the AGR complex with a backpack and sent more warnings to command.
The team member saw Crooks sit down, check his phone, and pull out a range finder to see how far he is from where Trump will be speaking at the rally podium. The team member, for the third time, notified command about what he saw Crooks doing.
Nine minutes before the assassination attempt, Trump took the stage at 6:02 p.m. At this time, Crooks is still on the ground near the AGR complex.
Sometime after 6:02 p.m., Crooks scales the AGR complex.
After eyewitnesses warn nearby law enforcement that Crooks is on the roof of the complex, Butler Township officers converge on the complex. Two officers attempt to follow Crooks up the roof but retreat when they notice he is armed with a rifle. Crooks points the rifle at one of the officers, who then falls to the ground in an attempt to take cover.
Both officers radio in to a “blanket tactical channel” that a man is on the roof of the AGR complex with a rifle just feet from where Trump is speaking.
About one minute before the attempted assassination, eyewitnesses alert police officers yet again that they can see a man on the roof of the AGR complex with what appeared to be a rifle.
At 6:11 p.m., Crooks fires his first shot at Trump. After his first shot, in an attempt to assassinate the former president, Crooks is able to fire seven more shots at Trump and into the rally crowd. While the shots are being fired, Pennsylvania State Police rush the AGR complex building and clear it from inside.
Within 16 seconds, after Crooks fired a total of eight shots at Trump and the rally crowd, two shots are fired at Crooks — one from a member of the Secret Service.
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