House task force releases damning interim report on the first assassination attempt against Trump
Former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13 in Butler
By Annie Grayer, CNN
(CNN) — The House task force investigating the first assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump released its interim report on Monday that included excerpts of new testimony from local law enforcement officials who provided firsthand accounts of the lack of communication and security failures at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.
Based on 23 interviews with local law enforcement officials and thousands of pages of documents from various authorities, the bipartisan task force concluded “the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened.”
The report could bring more pressure on the leadership of the US Secret Service after a Homeland Security independent panel called for a complete leadership overhaul.
The testimony in the report from unnamed Butler officials details the chaotic sequence of events from when local officials first spotted the Trump rally gunman, Thomas Crooks, to when Crooks was finally shot down.
One local emergency services official testified, for example, that he had texted his colleague that Crooks had a rangefinder at 5:17 p.m., but that colleague did not see the message until approximately 5:40 p.m. It’s unclear whether these local officials notified their leadership about seeing Crooks’ rangefinder as they were trying to track him down, the task force found.
The task force has also not received any evidence to suggest that the message from local law enforcement about Crooks possessing a weapon reached Trump’s Secret Service detail prior to shots fired, according to the report.
The House voted on July 24 to create the bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination. It will issue a final report on its findings no later than December 13, “including any recommendations for legislative reforms necessary to prevent future security lapses,” according to the text of the resolution the House passed.
The-CNN-Wire
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