House to hold hearings next week to look at attempted Trump assassination
MILWAUKEE — Three U.S. House committees will hold hearings next week on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, and Butler officials have been asked to testify at a fourth.
Congress on Monday returns from its one-week break for the Republican National Convention on Monday and three hearings on the shooting, which grazed Trump, killed one person and seriously injured two others, have been scheduled:
• A House Oversight Committee hearing Monday with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
“The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others,” said committee chair James Comer, R-Ky.
“We are grateful to the brave Secret Service agents who acted quickly to protect President Trump after shots were fired and the American patriots who sought to help victims, but questions remain about how a rooftop within proximity to President Trump was left unsecure.”
• A House Homeland Security Committee hearing Tuesday with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Cheatle.
• A House Judiciary Committee hearing with Wray.
In addition. Homeland Security Committee chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., announced his panel has invited State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris, Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe, and Lt. Matthew Pearson of the Butler Township Police Department, to testify at an upcoming hearing.
“As we continue to gather all the facts about the cowardly attempt on President Trump’s life on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, the accounts and experiences of state and local law enforcement professionals with direct knowledge of these events will be critical,” Green said. “Our goal is to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again, and I very much look forward to working with these officials in order to accomplish that critical objective.”
In addition, the Senate Homeland Security Committee plans its own hearing by the end of the month.
“There is no place for political violence in our nation, and Saturday’s shocking attack should never have been allowed to happen,” said committee chair Gary Peters, D-Mich. “Our committee is focused on getting all of the facts about the security failures that allowed the attacker to carry out this heinous act of violence that threatened the life of former President Trump, killed at least one person in the crowd, and injured several others.”
Separately, President Joe Biden announced an investigation of the shooting and the U.S. Homeland Security Department’s inspector general said it would look at how the Secret Service secured the site where Trump spoke in Butler, and how the Secret Service sniper team is prepared to respond to threats at similar events.