House leaders announce bipartisan task force to probe Trump assassination attempt
Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced Tuesday the creation of a bipartisan task force to investigate the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, adding to the congressional panels that are looking into the shooting at his rally in Pennsylvania.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, and Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said the task force will have all investigative authority of the House, including the power to issue subpoenas. It will be comprised of 13 members, seven Republicans and six Democrats.
The two leaders said the panel has three goals: to understand what went wrong the day of the attack; to ensure accountability; and to prevent such a failure by the Secret Service from happening again. At the end of its investigation, the task force will make recommendations for reform to relevant federal agencies and suggest any necessary legislation to put those reforms into place.
"The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life are shocking," Johnson and Jeffries said.
The House will vote this week to establish the panel. A resolution introduced by Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania that may be taken up in the coming days states that the task force will issue a final report by Dec. 13. It will then sunset 10 days after the report is filed. Kelly's district includes Butler County, where Trump's rally was held.
The investigation by the bipartisan task force joins several others that were launched in the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump on July 13, including by the Secret Service, FBI and Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also appointed an independent panel to review the attack, and a number of congressional committees have said they, too, will be examining the security failures that led to the shooting.
The former president and two attendees were injured, and one man was killed.
The FBI has identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the gunman. He was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
The gunman's ability to gain access to a rooftop so close to where Trump was speaking has led to criticisms of the Secret Service and its director, Kimberly Cheatle. She testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday, where she faced scathing criticism from Republicans and Democrats who were frustrated by her answers to questions about the security lapses at the rally.
Cheatle had faced calls to resign before the hearing, including from Johnson, but her testimony led more lawmakers to urge her to step down. Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, introduced a privileged resolution to impeach the Secret Service leader.