EXCLUSIVE — A pair of House Republicans are demanding access to all Secret Service records related to the agency’s handling of Donald Trump’s recent rally in Pennsylvania, during which the former president was shot in the ear in an apparent assassination attempt.
In a bill being introduced on Tuesday and first obtained by the Washington Examiner, Reps. Eli Crane (R-AZ) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) are pressing the Department of Homeland Security to hand over all documents, records, and communications regarding Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The bill comes just one day after Crane visited the rally site with the rest of the House Homeland Security Committee as part of its investigation into the security failures on that day.
“I visited the site of the attempted assassination against President Trump, including the roof where the shooter was positioned,” Crane said in a statement. “As a former Navy SEAL sniper, it was clear to me that many security measures were completely dropped making President Trump extremely vulnerable. There’s no excuse for this grave failure. Accountability must be inescapable for those responsible.”
The bill would require Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to hand over all records within seven days of the resolution passing the House. It is not yet clear when GOP leaders may bring the motion to the floor for a vote, especially as the House reportedly considers canceling next week’s and beginning its August recess a week early.
The legislation comes just hours after Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle announced she would resign from her position in the agency over her response to the assassination attempt. She testified Monday before the House Oversight Committee, after which both Republicans and Democrats called on the director to step down.
Cheatle initially said she would not resign following the assassination attempt, the first one on a current or former president since then-President Ronald Reagan was shot and injured in 1981.
Crane said the hearing did little to provide new information, prompting him to craft the legislation to enforce DHS to comply with lawmakers’ investigations.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) praised Cheatle's decision to resign, although he noted that he found it to be “overdue.” Still, Johnson said her resignation would not stop House efforts to investigate the security failures of that day to “ensure accountability beyond others in the chain of command.”
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Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) announced they would be creating a bipartisan task force with subpoena authority to investigate the matter, which the House is expected to vote on as early as Wednesday.
“The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking,” the two said in a joint statement. “In response to bipartisan demands for answers, we are announcing a House Task Force made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats to thoroughly investigate the matter. The task force will be empowered with subpoena authority and will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make certain such failures never happen again.”
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