A House panel report has revealed that the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump at Pennsylvania rally was “preventable” and happened due to “stunning security failures.”
“Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers could have engaged Thomas Matthew Crooks at several pivotal moments,” the report said.
Lawmakers said that “as Crooks’s behaviour became increasingly suspicious, fragmented lines of communication allowed Crooks to evade law enforcement.”
“Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened,” it said, as quoted by the Associated Press.
However, the report offers few new insights, as the shortcomings of the Secret Service‘s response have already been outlined in previous investigations, including those by an independent commission, an interim Senate report, and various congressional testimonies and media inquiries. Similar to earlier reports, the House findings do not pinpoint any specific individuals responsible for the failures.
The preliminary findings are based on thousands of pages of documents, nearly twenty transcribed interviews with state and local officials, and a range of briefings—both classified and unclassified—from senior officials at the Secret Service and FBI.
Meanwhile, the task force has initiated an investigation into the second assassination attempt on Trump from last month, involving an individual with a rifle who was found camped outside one of his golf courses in southern Florida.