WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, The Task Force on The Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump held its last hearing before the release of its final report.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was in the hot seat, receiving questions about the communication failures on July 13 and changes that are being made to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring.
“It is essential that we recognize the gravity of our failure on July 13, 2024. I personally carry the weight of knowing that we almost lost a protectee and that our failure cost a father and husband his life,” said Rowe.
Much of the hearing focused on what the agency is doing to hold those responsible accountable. For the most part, the hearing was civil. There were some tense exchanges toward the end of the hearing. Rowe accused task force member, Rep. Pat Fallon (R- TX) of trying to politicize a 9/11 memorial ceremony.
The hearing also focused on the use of drones by federal agents for campaign events, doing a better perimeter security sweep and identifying structures and areas of concern.
The task force has combed through 20,000 of pages of documents and countless hours of interviews and witness testimony to get a better understanding of the logistics of what went wrong on July 13. However, there is some information they still don’t know about both the July 13 and September 15 assassination attempts.
“The Department of Justice to this point has not provided this task force with information about the digital devices, what the would-be assassins were looking at, who they were affiliated with,” said Rep. Laurel Lee (R- FL). “They have not provided us the interview transcripts or summaries for the families of these individuals. When it comes to who they are, what their motives might have been or how they fit into the ongoing threat landscape, that is information that the task force still does not have and we need the Department of Justice to provide it.”
Rowe said the agency is changing its culture and moving away from the “do more with less” mindset and said the agency is on pace to hire 650 special agents and 350 uniformed officers in the coming months.
The task force voted to release the final report, it is expected to be made public next week.
