A lack of planning and coordination led to the “preventable” assassination attempt against former President Trump on July 13, said a U.S. House task force. The panel released an interim report on Monday — its first since the House voted unanimously to create it — detailing communications and coordination failures between the multiple layers of law enforcement on the ground in Butler, Pa., for Trump’s rally. The task force said Chair Mike Kelly (R-PA) has issued three subpoenas to local Pennsylvania agencies for “sensitive documents,” Politico reports. “Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened,” the report found. The Secret Service “did not effectively verify responsibilities were understood and being executed,” and there was no joint meeting between the Secret Service and state and local law enforcement on the day of the rally, the report said. The Secret Service put the building where the shooter accessed the roof outside of the security perimeter for the rally, a point that frustrated both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. The panel found “disagreement and confusion” about who was responsible for making sure the building was secure.
The breakdown in communication affected law enforcement’s ability to share information about the shooter, the report found, saying that “critical pieces of information ... moved slowly due to fragmented lines of communication and unclear chains of command on July 13.” “Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers could have engaged Thomas Matthew Crooks at several pivotal moments,” the report adds, referring to the shooter. The bipartisan panel has until mid-December to release its final report and legislative findings on the failures that led to the shooting and how to prevent future assassination attempts. This initial report’s findings align with another independent review that found Secret Service personnel failed to communicate effectively with local law enforcement partners. The House panel’s scope has been expanded to include the second assassination attempt in Florida in September. In Butler, the panel said regarding radio communications and text messages between state and local law enforcement about the shooter that it is “unclear” if any of that information reached Trump’s security detail at the time.
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