Federal law enforcement agencies have not yet shared requested documents and testimony with Congress.
As the congressional task force investigating recent assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump, now the president-elect, held its final hearing on Dec. 5, members noted that they still had not received all relevant documents and testimony from federal law enforcement agencies.
The revelation comes more than two weeks after the task force subpoenaed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), which is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ), for the testimony of two agents regarding the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The panel also sought information about ATF’s involvement in the aftermath of the Sept. 15 assassination attempt against Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
ATF made some documents available to the task force shortly after the subpoenas were served on Nov. 19. But at the Dec. 5 hearing, Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) said the panel had yet to receive “critical intelligence information” from ATF and the FBI, including digital analyses of Trump’s would-be assassins’ devices; assessments of their financial records; and interview summaries with the family members of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Butler shooter.
“Our mission on this task force is to understand what went wrong on the day of the attempted assassination, ensure accountability, and prevent such a failure from ever happening again,” Lee told Ronald Rowe Jr., the acting director of the Secret Service, who was the sole witness at the hearing.
But to achieve those goals, Lee said, the panel needs access to all relevant information related to the assassination attempts and the “actual threat landscape” that Trump was facing on those days.
“I beseech and suggest to the Department of Justice going forward that this is information that can and should and must be provided to Congress if we are to understand how to equip and support our federal law enforcement agencies,” she said.
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), chairman of the task force, said Lee was “spot on” with her assessment. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), a former assistant U.S. attorney, echoed his Republican colleagues’ frustration.
