Three House hearings this week signal urgency as Congress investigates Trump’s assassination attempt

Three separate House hearings this week into security failures surrounding the attempted assassination of Republican candidate Donald Trump have put the spotlight on the Secret Service and the FBI, while leaving questions unanswered.

The director of the Secret Service and the director of the FBI are both scheduled to testify before various House committees this week as Congress investigates security failures.

The House Oversight Committee is scheduled to hear testimony from Secret Service (USSS) Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday, followed by a scheduled Homeland Security hearing with both Cheatle and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday. Finally, the Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear testimony from Director Wray again on Wednesday.

USSS Director Cheatle’s testimony at 10 a.m. Monday comes just over a week after the attempted assassination of the former president at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, shortly before the National Republic Convention, which left one rally attendee dead and three wounded, including the former president.

So far, Director Cheatle has refused to step down in the wake of the disastrous failure, despite publicly stating that the “buck stops” are hers, in an interview with ABC News. She said the incident was “clearly a situation that no Secret Service agent ever wants to experience in their career.”

While the agency initially denied that the USSS refused to honor Trump team requests for more resources, it later confirmed that in some cases the requested resources were not provided. After initially saying that the claim that Trump had not received resources was “absolutely false,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi later retracted that characterization and acknowledged that it was possible that some resources had been denied.

“In some cases where specific specialized Secret Service units or resources were not provided, the agency has made changes to ensure the safety of the protected person,” he wrote in a statement to CNN. “This may include using state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce the public exposure of a protected person.”

The House Oversight Committee, where Cheatle is expected to testify Monday morning, agreed that there must be answers to “serious questions” about what happened.

Immediately after the attempted assassination, Congress requested documents and records of the Secret Service’s planning and execution of security measures. It also requested a briefing on the FBI’s investigation of the attempt.

“Americans have many serious questions about the historic security failures that occurred at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania,” chairman Rep. James Comer and top panel Democrat Jamie Raskin said in a statement Friday, reiterating the importance of the director’s testimony.

“Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle must appear before the House Oversight Committee without delay on Monday, July 22, to answer our many questions and provide the transparency and accountability that Americans deserve and that are the foundation of our government,” they added.

Chairman Comer had previously subpoenaed Director Cheatle to appear before the committee as part of the investigation. Shortly after that statement was released, a Secret Service spokesman confirmed that the director would appear as scheduled.

Cheatle is expected to answer questions about the documented security breaches that occurred in the lead-up to the nearly successful assassination attempt. For example, video of the event shows rally attendees watching the speech from outside the fence alerting police that a suspicious person was climbing onto the roof of the building where the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, later opened fire on the former president.

Security officers at the rally also reportedly saw Crooks several times throughout the day and flagged him as a suspect before carrying out his attack. In one notable instance, Crooks was found with a rangefinder, a tool often used by hunters to measure distances to targets. Crooks even attempted to run the rangefinder through metal detectors.

As more evidence is uncovered, it becomes increasingly clear that the Secret Service was spread too thin and may not have been properly prepared for an incident at the meeting. According to the Washington Postlocal police who were helping the Secret Service with security warned the agency that they did not have enough resources to station a patrol car outside the main building used in the Crook assassination attempt. Cheatle said last week that “the agency decided not to guard the roof from which Thomas Crooks opened fire on former President Donald Trump because it was too slanted.”

Additionally, whistleblowers have told Senate investigators that most of the staff assigned to cover the meeting were “unprepared and inexperienced personnel,” according to a letter sent to Secretary Mayorkas by Senate Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Josh Hawley.

On Tuesday, Director Cheatle was asked to appear alongside FBI Director Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas before the House Homeland Security Committee for a separate hearing called by Chairman Mark Green.

“The American people want answers about what happened in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Secretary Mayorkas and Director Cheatle lead the department and agency charged with securing our homeland and protecting our nation’s chief executives and candidates, while Director Wray leads the agency with the vital responsibility of investigating this attempted assassination,” Chairman Green said in a statement.

“It is imperative that we work together to understand what went wrong and how Congress can work with the departments and agencies to ensure this never happens again. Successful oversight requires that Congress work with these officials as they testify publicly before the House Committee on Homeland Security. The American people and the individuals and families receiving protective services deserve nothing less.”

FBI Director Wray is expected to appear before the House Judiciary Committee again on Wednesday for a hearing on the failings that led to the assassination attempt, committee Chairman Jim Jordan confirmed in a letter last week.

Wray’s FBI is the primary agency investigating the incident. According to Jordan, whistleblowers told his committee that USSS officials knew they had limited resources to cover the rally during security briefings leading up to the event.

Several senators have also launched a parallel investigation into the attempted murder, but no dates have been set for the hearings.