Washington — The House is set to vote Wednesday night to establish a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced the panel earlier this week and said it will have the full investigative authority of the House, including subpoena power. It will be composed of seven Republicans and six Democrats chosen by Johnson and Jeffries, who have not yet announced their selections.
The House Freedom Caucus, a group of far-right members, urged House leadership to keep at least one Democrat, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, off the task force.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, and Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said the task force will seek to understand what went wrong on July 13, the day of the shooting; ensure accountability; and prevent such a failure by law enforcement from happening again. At the conclusion of its probe, the panel will make recommendations to relevant government agencies and suggest necessary legislation to enact reforms.
The resolution establishing the task force was introduced by Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, whose district includes Butler County, where the rally was held.
Several federal agencies have launched their own investigations into the assassination attempt, including the FBI and Secret Service. At the Department of Homeland Security, its internal watchdog is looking into the security lapses that allowed the gunman to gain access to a roof close to where Trump was speaking. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has also named an independent panel to investigate the shooting, which came at the direction of President Biden.
The Secret Service has come under significant criticism in the wake of the attack, and its director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned Tuesday after a bruising day of testimony before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Cheatle frustrated Republicans and Democrats alike with her unwillingness to provide details about the event and frequently referred to the FBI’s ongoing investigation, prompting the number of lawmakers from both parties calling for her resignation to grow.
FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and shared new details with lawmakers about the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and his actions before he opened fire at the rally.
Wray revealed that on July 6, one week before the rally, the gunman conducted an online search for “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,” a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The FBI chief said he registered for Trump’s rally in Butler the same day he searched for information about Kennedy’s assassination, and had become “very focused” on Trump and the campaign event around that time.
Wray also told Judiciary Committee members that Crooks flew a drone near the rally site roughly two hours before he opened fire. The drone and two explosive devices were recovered from his vehicle. A third explosive device was found at Crooks’ house.
