The nonpartisan House of Representatives task force investigating the assassination attempt against previous president Donald Trump made it clear on Monday that the assassination attempt against Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania, march was “preventable” and was largely caused by “inadequate organizing and cooperation” between the Secret Service and local law enforcement.
On Monday, the Task Force on the Sought Death of Donald J. Trump released an interim team record on the July 13 death effort, but a final review is anticipated to be released by December 13.
The data obtained during the first step of the Task Force’s research evidently shows a lack of planning and cooperation between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the protest, according to Monday’s report.
The House task force highlighted “eight key findings” in Monday’s interim staff report. The task force claimed that the Secret Service did not include the AGR building and the surrounding area as part of a secure perimeter and that local sniper teams inside the AGR building were unable to monitor the entire AGR property because sniper teams were stationed inside the building with a “narrow field of vision” and that there was “inadequate planning and coordination” between the Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies regarding the July 13 rally in Butler.
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The task force argued that a unified command post was not set up to facilitate communication between local law enforcement and the Secret Service, that communication regarding the assassination suspect “moved slowly” because of “fragmented lines of communication and unclear chains of command,” that local law enforcement agencies testified that they shot at Crooks before the Secret Service sniper fired at the suspect, and that an autopsy report indicated that Crooks was killed by a single bullet, and that communication regarding the assassination
Monday’s report concluded,” 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”.
Trump was shot on July 13 by Crooks after the 20-year-old fired multiple shots from a roof outside the rally’s security perimeter. A retired fire chief was killed, while two other rallygoers were also hurt, in addition to the former president’s ear. The Secret Service has faced significant criticism in the months following the attempted assassination because it failed to protect the former president.