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House task force releases report on first Trump assassination attempt

  • Oct 21, 2024
  • Courtesy:
    CNN

Based on 23 interviews with local law enforcement officials and thousands of pages of documents from various authorities, the bipartisan task force concluded “the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened.”

The report could bring more pressure on the leadership of the US Secret Service after a Homeland Security independent panel called for a complete leadership overhaul.

The testimony in the report from unnamed Butler officials details the chaotic sequence of events from when local officials first spotted the Trump rally gunman, Thomas Crooks, to when Crooks was finally shot down.

One local emergency services official testified, for example, that he had texted his colleague that Crooks had a rangefinder at 5:17 p.m., but that colleague did not see the message until approximately 5:40 p.m. It’s unclear whether these local officials notified their leadership about seeing Crooks’ rangefinder as they were trying to track him down, the task force found.

The task force has also not received any evidence to suggest that the message from local law enforcement about Crooks possessing a weapon reached Trump’s Secret Service detail prior to shots fired, according to the report.

The task force will issue a final report on its findings no later than December 13.