House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has whistleblower information about possible security failures that led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Just the News reported. Trump sustained a gunshot wound at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
After the shooting, a bloodied Trump stood up and raised his fist to the crowd to show that he was okay. Although everyone was elated to see he had, in fact, survived an attempted assassination, it didn't take long to shift to figuring out how this happened.
Now, Rep. Jim Jordan is trying to determine the failures that left the former president so vulnerable. In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Monday, Jordan shared what the whistleblowers revealed a possible cause.
Jordan said that an informant from the Secret Service shared that the agency new it had "limited resources" heading into the rally. The FBI and Secret Service were preparing for Trump's rally and an appearance by first lady Jill Biden and may have been spread too thin.
Jordan warned that the committee is attempting to determine what went wrong and will call Wray to a hearing next week. Jordan said he expects Wray to prepare formal remarks for the July 24 hearing.
He has "several unanswered questions about the failures that led to the attempted assassination of a president," which hasn't happened in four decades, as Jordan noted. The Ohio Republican also called on the FBI to determine whether it could "conduct a rapid, transparent, and thorough investigation in the wake of its recent scandals."
He went on to share a numbered list of questions for Wray, many of which the public has been asking since the shooting. Among them is the logistical considerations are, including the number of "agents, analysts, and support personnel" who are conducting the FBI's probe.
Jordan also will want to hear details about the measures taken to secure the building and the venue's perimeter on the day of the rally. Another question from the lawmaker demanded to know what happened with the local police who allegedly "encountered the shooter" before he fired on Trump.
Most importantly, Jordan will want Wray to share what the FBI's investigation after the fact turned up. "What does the FBI’s evaluation of the shooter’s phone and digital activity show about his actions and movements in the days and hours leading up to the attempted assassination?" Jordan said in the letter.
Many of these questions from Jordan hint at the larger point that something doesn't add up about this shooting. The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had no criminal history until the day he lined up what could have been the perfect kill shot, CNN reported.
"Even though he didn’t get his primary target, the shooter was successful in a lot of ways because he got closer to doing something no one has done in decades," a federal official told the news outlet. Crooks was characterized as a loner but not particularly political.
Authorities are saying it now looks as if he was more opportunistic, picking Trump as his target because his rally was within an hour of where the young man lived. "It didn’t look to me like he was ready for an assault," former FBI behavioral analyst Kathleen Puckett said.
"It looked to me like he was taking a window that he saw a vulnerability in where he felt that he was unobserved to the extent he could get off some critical shots," Puckett added. She also warned that trying to figure out his motives might be "complicated" and turn up few answers in the end.
Congress needs to hold these people in the intelligence community accountable. The American people deserve to know what happened and why, or mistrust of the government will continue to grow.
