Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe met with House and Senate members in a closed-door meeting on Thursday to discuss the attempted assassination of former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Rowe briefed lawmakers on the agency's interim report into security failings at the USSS that led to a gunman scaling a nearby building and opening fire on President Trump just minutes after the rally began.
Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat who is the leader of the Trump assassination task force, told Fox News Digital that his briefing with Rowe was a “very long, very frank discussion.”
Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe Jr. testifies at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees on July 30, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington, DC. (Michael A. McCoy for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“They discussed the failures that occurred that day and how they were resolved, as well as some of the resource constraints the Secret Service faced during this election cycle,” Crow said of Rowe's briefing to lawmakers. “He prepared an overview of the internal report and briefed us on the internal mission evaluation that he had completed.”
Fox News was previously informed that a full mission assurance investigation conducted by the Secret Service is nearing completion and will be released shortly.
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According to Crow, Rowe told lawmakers he considered “everything,” from “the selection of the venue, to the security plan for the day, to the interaction between local police and campaign staff at the event, to communication, or in some cases lack of communication, between the Secret Service and local police, to perimeter security and visibility issues, and visibility.”
“The perimeter itself was too narrow,” Crow said during a personal visit to the July rally. “The fact that the shooter was on the roof of a building outside the perimeter, just over 100 yards from the podium where the former president was standing, is troubling.”
The task force is scheduled to hold its first public hearing later this month, focusing on local law enforcement.
Former President Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters Thursday that lawmakers will deliver a report very soon that will “surely shock the American people about the failures and delays in the security provided that day, and the breakdown in communication, failure and accountability.”
“The most important thing we want to emphasize is this is a bipartisan effort,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, told reporters.
“We truly believe that the American people need to know the whole truth, and the only way they can have confidence in the truth is if it's done in a completely nonpartisan manner.”
Meanwhile, several senior Secret Service officials who were due to retire soon are being urged to leave sooner to avoid congressional scrutiny in the coming months.
Fox News has learned that several senior Secret Service officials directly or indirectly connected to the security situation in Butler, Pennsylvania are retiring. The employees are eligible to retire, but are being encouraged by senior management to retire early to avoid lengthy congressional interviews and investigations.
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Separately, the FBI is conducting a separate investigation into the shooter, which is still ongoing.
