Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, described how the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service prevented the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) from obtaining key materials to investigate the failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
“Things like autopsy reports, you know, the House gets them by subpoena. We don't have them,” he told reporters.
“We have a toxicology report, but we don't have any ballistics report. So where did the bullet go? We don't even know how they handled the crime scene,” said Johnson, who is a ranking member of HSGAC's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI).
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Senator Ron Johnson (right) outlined specific requests that have yet to be made by the Secret Service and FBI. Pictured left is Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Lowe. (Reuters)
“At this point we just have basic information that we should have, and we don't have it,” the senator said, noting the time that has passed since the July 13 assassination attempt on President Trump.
“We have not yet been able to interview the shooter of (Thomas) Crooks,” Johnson said. Crooks was the would-be assassin who opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, grazing the former president by the ear, killing one rally attendee and seriously wounding two others.
The Republican said the sniper who shot Crooks was the first person he wanted to interview.
The Secret Service told locals they would “deal with” the building Thomas Crooks used to shoot Trump
Thomas Matthew Crookes (DJ Laughery (background))
Additionally, he said the FBI had not provided him with the FD-302 form, which is used in conducting an investigation based on the results of the interview. Johnson noted that Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate told him at his July hearing that the FBI would provide him the form as soon as possible.
“I haven't received it yet,” he said.
“They did 1,000 interviews. We did 12,” the senator said.
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Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI's Miami Field Office, Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe Jr., and Sheriff Rick Bradshaw of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office spoke at a press conference on Monday, the day after the assassination attempt on former President Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedl/Getty Images)
The Wisconsin Republican said a lack of information is consistent with a slow walk.
He also said that a recent briefing by Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Lowe to the chairmen and senior members of HSGAC and PSI did not provide the senators with any new information.
Johnson said the few documents provided to lawmakers were “heavily redacted.”
“And this case is unusual. I've never seen anything like this before,” he said of the edits.
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Former President Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Johnson said this wasn't his “first time,” explaining that redaction usually involves blacking out certain parts of text. “This is just a whiteout.”
“So, I don't know. Was it just one word?” he asked.
He said in some cases it was not clear whether something had been concealed in the documents because of the whitewashing.
“That's the level of opacity we're getting in terms of their lack of cooperation with our investigation,” Johnson added.
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The Secret Service has repeatedly said it is cooperating with the congressional investigation, despite bipartisan protests and accusations of “obstruction.”
“The United States Secret Service is assisting with the broad range of inquiries and investigations related to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, including multiple congressional investigations, including those by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and the House of Representatives Bipartisan Task Force,” a Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Since July 13, we have provided these groups with over 2,800 pages of response documents and have made personnel available for interviews upon request. On September 12, Acting Director Ron Lowe briefed members of the U.S. House and Senate committees on the agency's mission assurance investigation. Given the volume of requests, the jurisdiction of the requesters, and resource and personnel limitations to respond, the U.S. Secret Service is prioritizing responses to the groups listed above.”
