House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has issued a subpoena to ask Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify before the committee about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania last week.
“The Oversight Committee is investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump on July 13, 2024. The Oversight Committee is sending you, as Director of the Secret Service, a subpoena to appear at a hearing entitled, ‘Oversight of the United States Secret Service and the Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump,’ to be held on July 22, 2024,” Comer wrote to Cheatle. letter:
The attempted assassination of a former president and current Republican presidential candidate demonstrates a complete failure of the CIA’s primary mission and requires Congressional oversight. Despite giving you permission to speak to the media, neither the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nor the Secret Service provided any assurances regarding your attendance at the Oversight Committee’s scheduled hearings, making the attached subpoena necessary. [Emphasis added]
On the day of the deadly attack, the Committee wrote to you requesting that you voluntarily appear at its hearing on July 22, 2024. The Committee then wrote to you on July 15, 2024, requesting specific information in anticipation of your testimony at the July 22 hearing. Initially, the Secret Service had committed to your attendance; however, it appears that Department of Homeland Security officials have since intervened, placing your attendance in doubt. Furthermore, no meaningful updates or information have been shared with the Committee since Department of Homeland Security’s intervention. The lack of transparency and failure to cooperate with the Committee from both the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service on this urgent matter casts further doubt on your ability to lead the Secret Service and requires the attached subpoena to compel your appearance. Before the Supervisory Committee. [Emphasis added]
As details of the security failings surrounding the assassination attempt emerge, Cheatle has faced calls to resign, but she has refused to do so.
On July 13, the day of the rally and assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, 20-year-old suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks was arrested at security after the doors opened at 1 p.m. and he was found to be in possession of a magnetometer and rangefinder, tools commonly used by long-range shooters.
Crooks was spotted by police near the American Glass Research (AGR) facility an hour before the assassination attempt.
At least 30 minutes before the assassination attempt, another police officer notified authorities that a suspicious person was searching the area and grounds of the rally. The officer took a photograph of Crooks lying on the ground. Another officer searched the grounds of the rally but did not find Crooks.
Approximately 26 minutes before the assassination attempt, a Beaver County Emergency Services Unit (ESU) team member stationed at the AGR complex noticed Crooks investigating a rooftop near the rally and called police. The ESU team member also took a photograph of Crooks.
Approximately 11 minutes before the assassination attempt, ESU team members sent a photograph they had taken of Crooks to command, warning them to be on the lookout for Crooks. Team members then witnessed Crooks returning to the AGR compound with a backpack on, sending a further warning to command.
Team members saw Crooks sit down, check his phone, and pull out a rangefinder to gauge how far he was from where Trump was speaking at the podium at the rally. It was the third time the team members had notified headquarters about what Crooks was doing.
Trump took to the stage at 6:02 pm, nine minutes before the assassination attempt, at which point Crooks was still on the ground near the AGR complex.
Just after 6:02 pm, Crooks summited the AGR complex.
Butler Township officers converged on the building after a witness called nearby police that Crooks was on the roof of the building. Two officers attempted to follow Crooks onto the roof but retreated when they realized he had a rifle. Crooks pointed the rifle at one of the officers, who fell to the ground in an attempt to take cover.
Both officers radioed into a “blanket tactical channel” that there was a man with a rifle on the roof of the AGR compound, just feet from where Trump was speaking.
About a minute before the assassination attempt, a witness again contacted police, reporting seeing a man with what appeared to be a rifle on the roof of the AGR complex.
At 6:11 pm, Crooks fired the first shot at Trump. After the first shot, Crooks fired seven more shots at Trump and the crowd at the rally in an attempt to assassinate the former president. As the shooting continued, Pennsylvania State Police stormed into the building at the AGR complex and cleared it from inside.
Within 16 seconds of Crooks firing a total of eight shots at Trump and the crowd at the rally, two shots were fired at him, one by a Secret Service agent.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
