Washington — Top officials with the U.S. Secret Service and FBI are poised to testify before two Senate committees Tuesday about the security lapses that led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The joint hearing with FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate and Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe, which begins at 10 a.m., will mark the third congressional proceeding in just over a week focused on the shooting at Trump’s rally, where he and two others were injured, and one attendee was killed. Abbate and Rowe are testifying before members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and Judiciary Committee.
The fallout from the July 13 attack led to the resignation of former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who announced her decision to step down from her post just one day after she faced sharp criticism from the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Rowe, the agency’s deputy director, was appointed to temporarily lead the Secret Service.
The Secret Service has faced significant criticism in the wake of the attack, as questions have arisen as to how the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to gain access to a rooftop so close to where Trump was addressing the crowd of supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was killed by a Secret Service sniper after firing eight rounds from the roof of a building belonging to AGR International, which was outside the security perimeter controlled by the agency.
FBI officials told reporters Monday that they believe Crooks used the building’s HVAC system and piping to climb up onto the roof, and he was spotted wearing a backpack and walking near the AGR building roughly 15 minutes before opening fire.
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, said the shooter also searched for information related to power plants, mass shooting events, improvised explosive devices and the assassination attempt against the prime minister of Slovakia in May.
The former president has agreed to speak with the FBI about the assassination attempt, Rojek said, an interview that Trump later said will take place on Thursday.