Final House Report on Trump Assassination Attempts Declares Butler Shooting as ‘Preventable’
The panel has reported that multiple federal agencies did not supply the requested documents and information.
An attempted assassination of President-elect Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has been attributed to “preexisting conditions and leadership failures” within the U.S. Secret Service, according to findings from a House task force.
This task force was established to investigate the shooting incident that occurred on July 13, as well as a subsequent assassination attempt on Trump on September 15 at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The task force concluded that the first incident was “preventable,” but highlighted in their final report that several federal law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service, failed to provide essential documents pertinent to their investigation.
According to the report released on December 10, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) “offered limited cooperation in various aspects of the Task Force’s inquiry.”
The report also pointed out that the FBI did not supply a comprehensive evidence log and did not make key witnesses available for testimony regarding the July shooting. Additionally, the bureau did not respond to repeated requests for digital analyses of the shooter’s devices.
Furthermore, the ATF was reported to be largely uncooperative with the investigation, only making two subpoenaed employees available for testimony at the last moment, according to lawmakers.
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“The ATF also denied repeated requests for document submission and only after subpoenas were issued did it produce a mere 40 pages to the Task Force,” the report mentions. “This amounted to just a fraction of the information that the Task Force was seeking.”
Additional requests remain outstanding, such as documents and communications related to the identification of the shooter by the FBI and the cleaning of the crime scene, as well as complete intelligence regarding threats faced by Trump during the relevant time frames, among others.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the Department of Justice, which oversees both the FBI and ATF, for a comment.
‘Critical Vulnerabilities’
Concerning the incident on September 15, the panel discovered that the security at the golf course had “critical vulnerabilities” that were acknowledged by both the Secret Service and media photographers. The report indicated that the Secret Service had previously identified a location along the golf course perimeter where the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, positioned himself as a “favorable position for potential snipers.”
Nevertheless, the task force concluded that the events of that day demonstrated “how properly executed protective measures can thwart an attempted assassination.”
A Secret Service agent patrolling the course noticed a rifle barrel protruding through the foliage, fired in that direction, causing the suspect to flee.
“The special agent’s swift response and choice to discharge his weapon toward the threat altered the course of events, potentially averting a lethal or dangerous situation,” determined the task force.
In their final report, lawmakers proposed a series of recommendations aimed at preventing similar failures from happening in the future. Such recommendations included implementing counter-surveillance at all outdoor events, sharing threat intelligence with pertinent authorities, reviewing agency protocols for sweeping golf courses, and lowering the number of Secret Service protectees, among others.
