WASHINGTON – Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement official faced questions Tuesday from lawmakers seeking details about how U.S. intelligence and state and local law enforcement communicated as a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, killing one rally attendee and wounding two others in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers were horrified to learn that state police had provided U.S. Secret Service with information about a suspect with a rangefinder about 20 to 25 minutes before the July 13 shooting, and that a photograph of him had been texted to a federally provided phone number.
During the hours-long hearing before the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, lawmakers continued to grapple with the question of how an agency tasked with protecting the country’s current and former political leaders could allow a 20-year-old with a rifle in his hand to climb onto a roof and get close to Trump.
The Committee Hear was still underway when Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday, after days of outrage over the agency’s failure to stop the gunman before he fired several shots, injuring the former president’s right ear. The shots came just as Trump turned his head.
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris testified that authorities were responding to several simultaneous incidents in the run-up to Trump’s appearance in Butler – heat-related illnesses among attendees, a missing 6-year-old – and that they were also keeping an eye on four suspects, including Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, who was later killed by a Secret Service sniper and identified as shooter.
Paris said he could not comment in detail on what happened, but told deputies that two officers from the Butler County Emergency Unit, who were assigned to monitor the area, including the badger, left their posts to find the man, who was spotted with a rangefinder.
Notification sent
Pennsylvania state police sent an alert and a photo of the man to the Secret Service through a phone number the federal agency provided to state authorities, Paris said.
Committee Chairman Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee, said he was “completely stunned” that federal police ignored the warning and did not interrupt the event.
“I think it’s interesting that this guy is so suspicious, has a rangefinder, they leave their post to look for him, and the Secret Service finds out 20 to 25 minutes before he’s going to do it, but they still let the president on stage,” Green said. “But there are more details that could be found out.”
Republican Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina said the agency had committed a “colossal failure.”
State police took a walkthrough of the site on July 11 and were informed by the Secret Service that Butler County ESU would be responsible for monitoring the rooftop where the shooter was hiding a few days later, Paris said.
The Secret Service is “the lead agency,” Paris said.
Paris told the committee that his agency’s role in assisting federal police during presidential and other high-level visits was “routine” and that his force had “provided the Secret Service with whatever it requested.”
Cooperation with the FBI
Paris told lawmakers that his agency is currently conducting an investigation “in parallel and in coordination with” the FBI into the murder of former fire chief Corey Comperatore and the attempted murder of two other bystanders. As is common practice in police-involved shootings, state police are also investigating the killing of Crooks by a Secret Service sniper.
“I can assure you that the Pennsylvania State Police will cooperate fully with this investigation,” Paris said in his opening statement. He said he would provide the committee with answers that would not jeopardize the investigation.
Paris also told lawmakers that the Secret Service had not yet provided the state police with a detailed daily operations plan for the ongoing investigation.
Communication concerns
Democratic Rep. Lou Correa of California questioned how the various agencies were using real-time communications technologies to communicate with each other and expressed concern about possible outages in the run-up to the November election.
“Pennsylvania is a swing state. Incidents like this will happen again,” Correa said. “And knowing that we don’t have the facts, let alone can implement a plan to fix the gaps, is unacceptable for our democracy, for our country.”
Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, emphasized the importance of interagency communication, saying that after 9/11, a platform called FirstNet was developed in response to communication gaps.
“There is infrastructure, but it is not always used at every event,” Yoes said, adding that he could not comment on the specific July 13 communications.
“We are not where we need to be on this,” said Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.
“I stood on this roof”
Members of the Homeland Security Committee visited the site of the attempted assassination on Monday and climbed onto the roof to see for themselves how close Crooks was able to get to the scene.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona presented a video he took from the roof.
“It’s not that steep. A 70-year-old man just climbed onto the roof here,” he said, revealing Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida behind him.
Previously, Giménez had said during questioning: “I stood on that roof and yes, I am 70 years old.”
The Florida Republican’s age has been mentioned several times as a reference point for Cheatle’s comment last week that the slope of the roof posed too great a risk to station Secret Service personnel there.
Cheatle said abc news on July 16 that the slope of the roof was a “safety factor” in the decision to station police inside the building rather than on top of it.
When asked about his opinion on Cheatle’s comments, Paris said he “disagrees” with the decision.
Cheatle was almost five hours ago Questioning on Monday on Capitol Hilland leading politicians from the Committee on Oversight and Accountability demanded her resignation.
Non-partisan Task Force
US House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced on Tuesday that they would form a task force to find out “what went wrong on the day of the attempted assassination.”
The Louisiana Republican and New York Democrat issued a joint press release detailing plans for the task force, which will include seven Republicans and six Democrats and will make legislative and policy recommendations.
“The security failures that enabled an assassination attempt on Donald Trump are shocking,” House leaders said. “The task force will be empowered to issue subpoenas and will act quickly to determine the facts, ensure accountability, and ensure that such failures never happen again.”
Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, who represents Butler County, introduced a resolution to create the task force and attended Tuesday’s hearing.
