Pennsylvania state police officers stand near the stage of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania’s top police officer faced questions Tuesday from lawmakers who wanted details on how the U.S. Secret Service and state and local law enforcement communicated when a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, killed one rallygoer and injured two others in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Lawmakers were aghast to learn state police relayed information to the U.S. Secret Service of a suspicious man with a range finder roughly 20 to 25 minutes prior to the July 13 shooting, and that a photo of him was texted to a phone number provided by the federal agency.
The hours-long hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security occurred as lawmakers continued to probe how an agency tasked with protecting the nation’s current and former leaders could allow a 20-year-old wielding a rifle to reach a rooftop in such close proximity to Trump.
The committee’s hearing was still ongoing when Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday following days of outrage about the agency’s failure to stop the gunman before he fired several rounds and injured the former president’s right ear. The shots were fired just as Trump turned his head.
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris testified that in the lead up to Trump taking the stage in Butler, authorities were responding to several simultaneous incidents — heat-related illnesses among attendees, a missing 6-year-old — and they also had eyes on four suspicious individuals, including Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, who was later killed by a Secret Service counter sniper and identified as the shooter.
Paris said that he could not speak to the minute-by-minute timeline of events but told lawmakers that two Butler County Emergency Services Unit officers assigned to monitor the area, including the rooftop, left their post to locate the man who had been spotted with a range finder.
Pennsylvania state police sent an alert and photo of the man to the Secret Service via a phone number the federal agency provided to state authorities, Paris said.
Committee Chair Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican, said he was “totally blown away” that federal law enforcement did not heed the warning and pause the event.
“I find it interesting that this guy is so suspicious, has a range finder, they leave their post that they are manning to go look for him, yet Secret Service, they get told about it 20 to 25 minutes beforehand, but (they) still let the president go on stage,” Green said. “But again, there’s more details to be had.”
Rep. Dan Bishop, a North Carolina Republican, said the agency committed a “colossal failure.”
State police participated in a walk-through of the site on July 11 and were told by Secret Service that Butler County ESU would be responsible for monitoring the rooftop where the gunman perched days later, Paris said.
Secret Service was “the lead agency,” Paris said.
Paris told the committee that his agency’s role in supporting federal law enforcement during presidential and other high-profile visits is “routine” and that his force “provided the Secret Service with everything they requested.”
Paris told lawmakers his agency is now conducting an investigation “parallel to and in concert with” the FBI into the homicide of local former fire chief Corey Comperatore and the attempted murder of two other spectators. As is routine in officer-involved shootings, state police are also investigating the Secret Service counter sniper’s killing of Crooks.
“I can tell you that the Pennsylvania State Police will fully cooperate with that investigation,” Paris said in his opening statement. He said he would provide the committee answers that did not compromise that investigation
Paris also told lawmakers that the Secret Service has yet to produce for the state police the detailed day-of operations plan for the ongoing investigation.
Democratic Rep. Lou Correa of California questioned how the various agencies were using real-time communication technology to talk to each other and said he worried about possible failures as the November election approaches.
“Pennsylvania is a battleground state. You will have these kinds of events again,” Correa said. “And to know that we don’t have the facts, let alone execute a plan to fix the holes is unacceptable to our democracy, to our country.”
Patrick Yoes, national president of Fraternal Order of Police, stressed the importance of interagency communications and said that a platform called FirstNet was developed after 9/11 in response to communication lapses.
“There’s infrastructure, but they’re not always used in every event,” Yoes said, adding that he could not speak to the specific communications on July 13.
“We’re not where we need to be on that,” ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said.
Lawmakers from the Homeland Security Committee visited the site of the attempted assassination Monday and climbed the rooftop to see for themselves how close Crooks was able to get to the event.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona presented a video he recorded from the rooftop location.
“It’s not that steep at all. We just had a 70-year-old man back here climb up on the roof,” he said, revealing Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida behind him.
Earlier during questioning Giménez said “I stood on that roof, and yes, I am 70 years old.”
The Florida Republican’s age was mentioned multiple times as a reference point for Cheatle’s comments last week that the roof’s slope presented too much of a danger to post Secret Service personnel there.
Cheatle told ABC News on July 16 that the roof’s slope was a “safety factor” in the decision to post law enforcement inside of the building rather than on top.
When asked for his thoughts on Cheatle’s remarks, Paris said that he “can’t agree” with that decision.
Cheatle faced nearly five hours of questioning on Capitol Hill Monday, and top lawmakers on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability called for her resignation.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced Tuesday they will form a task force to understand “what went wrong on the day of the attempted assassination.”
The Louisiana Republican and New York Democrat issued a joint press release detailing plans for the task force that will seat seven Republicans and six Democrats, and make legislative and policy recommendations.
“The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking,” the House leaders said. “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.”
GOP Rep. Mike Kelly, who represents the Butler area, introduced a resolution to establish the task force and attended Tuesday’s hearing.
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