House Oversight Committee summons Secret Service Director to testify on Trump assassination

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee James Comer has issued a subpoena to the Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle This forced her to appear on Monday before the committee that was scheduled to conduct the first congressional hearing on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Comer initially said the Secret Service had agreed to participate, but officials from the Department of Homeland Security apparently intervened and no “significant news or information” was shared with the committee.

Comer said the “lack of transparency and lack of cooperation” with the committee calls into question Cheatle’s ability to lead the Secret Service and makes the subpoena necessary.

Cheatle said the agency recognizes the importance of a review ordered by Democratic President Joe Biden and will fully participate in it and in the congressional committees investigating the shooting.

“The attempted assassination of the former President and current Republican presidential candidate represents a complete failure of the agency’s core mission and requires congressional oversight,” Comer wrote in a letter to Cheatle.

The subpoena was just one of several developments that occurred on Wednesday in the wake of Saturday’s assassination. Earlier, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would set up a task force to investigate security failures during the assassination. He also announced he would ask Cheatle to resign from her post as director of the Secret Service. On Fox News Channel, he said, without elaborating, “I think she’s shown where her priorities lie.”

He said the task force will be made up of Republicans and Democrats and its formation will speed up the investigation process.

“There are not many procedural hurdles and we will have the authority to issue subpoenas for this task force as well,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he had not received satisfactory answers from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas or FBI leadership.

“We must be held accountable for this. It was inexcusable,” Johnson said. “Obviously there were security lapses. You don’t have to be a special operations expert to understand that. And we will get to the bottom of this quickly.”

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general also said Wednesday that he had launched an investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of Trump’s security on election day. an armed man tried to murder him at his rally in Pennsylvania.

In a brief statement on the Inspector General’s website, the agency said the purpose of the investigation was to “evaluate the United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) process for securing former President Trump’s campaign rally on July 13, 2024.”

No date was given for the start of the investigation. The notice was part of a long list of ongoing cases being tracked by the Office of the Inspector General.

Biden had already ordered an independent review of security at the rally.

The shoot raised questions How the shooter was able to climb onto a roof and from there had a clear view of the former president, who said he had been shot in the ear.

The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 135 meters of the stage where the former Republican president was speaking when he opened fire. And this despite a threat to Trump’s life from Iran, leading to additional security measures for the former president in the days leading up to Saturday’s rally.

A bloodied Trump was quickly escorted off the stage by secret service agents and snipers killed the shooterTrump said the shooting pierced the top of his right ear. One protester was killed and two others were seriously injured.

Cheatle said her agency is working to determine how Saturday’s shooting happened and to ensure it never happens again.

The agency, with its approximately 7,800 employees, is responsible for protecting presidents, vice presidents, their families, former presidents, their spouses and their minor children under the age of 16, as well as some other high-ranking cabinet members such as the Secretary of Homeland Security.