Congress is quickly ramping up a sprawling, multi-committee investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, with much of its early scrutiny focused on the Secret Service.
House Oversight Committee members will get a briefing with the agency on Tuesday, a committee aide told POLITICO.
In addition to the briefing, Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has invited Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify publicly before his panel on July 22. The committee aide said that “based on our conversations with the Secret Service,” they expect Cheatle will appear for the hearing and “more details will be announced soon.”
The House Oversight Committee is one of several congressional panels poised to conduct investigations into Saturday’s shooting.
House Homeland Security Republicans are set to be briefed by Cheatle on Monday. Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) spoke with Cheatle on Sunday and sent a request for records to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is also running its own probe into the shooting.
Speaker Mike Johnson, in a social media post over the weekend, vowed the House would conduct a “full investigation.”
“The American people deserve to know the truth. We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP,” he added.
FBI Director Christopher Wray was already scheduled to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee next week before Saturday’s shooting.
But most of Congress’ early questions are focused on Cheatle and the Secret Service, with lawmakers questioning publicly how the gunman was able to get on a roof roughly 200 yards from where Trump was speaking.
Cheatle, in a Monday statement, said the Secret Service would cooperate with an independent review announced by President Joe Biden, as well as working “with the appropriate Congressional committees on any oversight action.”
“The Secret Service is working with all involved Federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again. We understand the importance of the independent review announced by President Biden yesterday and will participate fully,” she added.
