Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said in an interview in Washington that the FBI and U.S. Secret Service are slowing down their investigation into the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Breitbart News Daily.
Asked about the investigation into the first assassination attempt on Trump, which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, Johnson said lawmakers were “basically being walked slowly by the Secret Service and the FBI.”
“They assigned us 12 Secret Service agents to interview people. 12 people. The FBI interviewed over 1,000 people. I asked Deputy Director Abbate at the hearing a few weeks after the assassination to give us a transcript of all the interviews. … We need that. I said, 'OK, we'll look into it. We'll get it to you as soon as we can,'” Johnson said, noting that he has yet to receive it from the FBI, adding that the documents he has received are “heavily redacted.”
“The weird thing is, normally they do redactions, so you know they're redacting something, and in this case it's whiteouts. You don't even know that you're getting a blank page. You have no idea if it's a sentence that's been redacted or if the whole page is blacked out,” the senator explained.
“So, they're once again slow in their investigation,” he said, stressing that they haven't provided enough information. Johnson said they haven't even had a chance to interview the shooter who shot Crooks.
“He's the one I want to talk to the most. I want to know when he had him in his sights, what he saw. The individual has not been able to contact us, we have not been able to get in touch with him,” he said, adding that even Democrats are frustrated and talking about the subpoenas.
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“They should have issued subpoenas a long time ago,” he said, adding that federal agencies appear to be “ignoring” congressional oversight and positioning themselves above the law.
While Johnson said the obstruction could be the result of “gross incompetence,” he said many suspect the Secret Service has placed too much emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
“They're not focused on excellence. They're not focused on the mission of these institutions,” he added, noting that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), whose state is investigating a second assassination attempt, is likely to face the same problems when it comes to transparency that lawmakers are experiencing.
WATCH: DeSantis takes action! Orders Florida Attorney General to investigate attempted shooting of Trump
Ron DeSantis / Rumble
“There are reports that CBP knew about this guy, but the Homeland Security investigation declined to do a full investigation. So the CIA must have a file on this guy. The FBI must have a file on this guy. CBP must have a file on this guy. Do you think DeSantis is going to get those files?” he asked. “Certainly not voluntarily.”
“They haven't given it to us yet. Apparently the FBI can't get the CIA file on the guy. This is going to be an interagency fight. They're not going to hand over the information,” he said, adding that the federal government is “totally out of control” and “secretive.”
“The heads of these agencies don't believe they're accountable to the American people. They don't believe they have to cooperate with Congress. That's the state of government today. And that's why we need to shrink government. We need a lot less government influence over our lives,” Johnson added.
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