Trump Agrees To Meet With FBI as Senate Committees Begin Investigation Into Assassination Attempt

Officials say they are no closer to a motive for the shooter, who was killed immediately after the assassination attempt.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Trump at the Republican National Convention after the assassination attempt. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

President Trump has agreed to interview with the FBI as the agency investigates the motives behind the attempt on his life earlier this month, a decision that comes as two Senate committees plan to question the Secret Service and FBI directors in a hearing Tuesday. 

Despite countless interviews, analysis of Thomas Matthew Crook’s electronic devices and credit cards, and the cooperation of his parents, officials said the motive of the shooter, who was killed immediately after the assassination attempt, is unclear.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s joint hearing with the Homeland and Government Affairs Committee Tuesday is the latest in a series of meetings that have taken place since Crooks fired on President Trump at a rally at Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. 

At the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on the same matter last week, the director of the Secret Service, Kim Cheatle, who has since resigned her position, said that her organization had “failed” in its “solemn mission.” Ms. Cheatle also called for a nonpartisan attitude toward the attempt on Trump’s life. 

The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, announced last week that members would question the new director of the Secret Service, Ronald Rowe Jr., and the deputy director of the FBI, Paul Abbate, “on a bipartisan basis.”

“Keep politics out of it,” he said. “We need to ask probing and important questions. We need to do it in a responsible way that avoids the kind of incendiary language that has become all too common in our country.”

“Our mission is not political. It is literally a matter of life and death, as the tragic events on July 13 remind us of that,” Ms. Cheatle said. “I have full confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service. They are worthy of our support in executing our protective mission.”

Mr. Durbin echoed Ms. Cheatle’s sentiments in his speech on the Senate floor last week, during which he announced Tuesday’s hearing. Mr. Durbin called polarizing rhetoric “irresponsible.”

“It is irresponsible for a member of Congress to accuse the opposing political party of being ‘flat out evil,’ and trying to murder President Trump,” he said. “But a member of Congress actually said that. Another member said, ‘Joe Biden sent the orders.’” 

“Those kinds of statements are so irresponsible and mean-spirited. As a country, we have become desensitized to the toxic and violent rhetoric that some politicians have embraced as standard fare,” he added.

Meanwhile, Speaker Johnson and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, published a list of seven Republicans and six Democrats who will make up the task force that will also investigate the assassination attempt. 

Representative Mike Kelly, of Butler, Pennsylvania, will be chairman of the committee. He sat in the front row atf the rally where Trump was shot. Representative Jason Crow of Colorado will be the Democratic ranking member.

The other Republican members of the task force include Representatives Mark Green, David Joyce, Laurel Lee, Michael Waltz, and Clay Higgins.

Representatives Lou Correa, Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan, Glenn Ivey, and Jason Moskowitz will make up the remaining Democratic contingent of the task force.

Most members of the group are either former prosecutors or former members of the military.

This task force is “empowered with all investigative authority of the House of Representatives, including subpoena authority,” according to a statement. It will “move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability and help make certain such failures never happen again.”


The New York Sun

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