Trump assassination attempt task force holds final hearing; Secret Service director to testify

The House task force on the two assassination attempts of President-elect Trump will gather for its final hearing Thursday ahead of the release of its highly anticipated report.

U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Director Ronald Rowe will testify before lawmakers. Task force members will then huddle behind closed doors to consider their final report.

Chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said the hearing was about restoring confidence in federal law enforcement.

“What we’re working on more than anything else is the public has to know what happened that day because there’s still a lot of confusion about it,” Kelly told Fox News Digital Wednesday.

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“When we look at Secret Service, that’s always the elite of the elite. So, I think what we’re trying to do is establish the situation where … we can restore that confidence.”

Trump held a rally in Kelly’s district July 13, when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire on the event from just outside its security perimeter, injuring Trump and others. One rally attendee was killed. 

Later in September, USSS agents opened fire on a 58-year-old man who had a rifle aimed at Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where the president-elect was out for the day.

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The incidents prompted heavy scrutiny of the USSS and its security practices and led to the ouster of USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle.

And while Kelly admitted he “would have rather had” Cheatle testify before his task force, he praised Rowe’s handling of the situation since succeeding her. 

“From the very start, he said, ‘Look, it was entirely our fault. This is the worst state the Secret Service has ever had,’” he said. 

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Kelly said he anticipated the final report being released around Dec. 13, the task force’s “due date” for producing the results of its investigation.

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The panel released an interim report in late October detailing “a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the rally.”

USSS personnel at the event “did not give clear guidance” to state and local authorities about how to manage security outside their hard perimeter, nor was there a central meeting between USSS and the law enforcement agencies supporting them the morning of the rally, according to findings presented as key failures in the 51-page report.