Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) predicted that Americans would be “shocked” and “horrified” when lawmakers release their interim report on the assassination attempt on former President Trump and the security failures of those protecting the Republican presidential candidate.
The acting director of the US Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, informed the senators on Thursday in a closed session about the current status of the investigation into the failed assassination attempt.
Trump assassination attempt: Whistleblowers claim they were “woefully unprepared” to provide security
Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe testified before the Senate Joint Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the security failures that led to the July 30 assassination attempt on former President Trump in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
“I think the American people are going to be shocked, amazed and horrified by what we’re going to tell them about the Secret Service’s failures in this assassination attempt on the former president,” Blumenthal told Fox News. “But I think they should also be horrified and horrified by the Department of Homeland Security’s failure to be more open and honest with them than it should have been in providing them with information.”
Blumenthal did not elaborate on what he learned from Thursday’s meeting. Despite his statements, other lawmakers declined to comment on how the public might react to their report.
“It will be released shortly. And it will be an interim report because we still need to find out a lot more information,” Senator Gary Peters (D-Michigan) told Fox News. “We hope that once that report is released, we will get the additional information that we need to have a full account of what happened and also steps that we need to take in the future to make sure that something like this never happens again.”
RFK JR LOSES SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION AFTER ELECTION CAMPAIGN IS SUSPENDED
Images of the assassination attempt on former President Trump are shown during the Republican National Convention on July 18 in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said lawmakers wanted to make sure the public understood the report was being produced in a bipartisan manner. He said there were some frustrations expressed with Rowe on Thursday.
“So he’s committed to providing more information,” Johnson said. “But we hope to have that preliminary report ready before the start of that work period. So again, we’re under pretty tight timelines. But it’s important that people recognize that we’re committed to a bipartisan product.”
The Secret Service has come under intense scrutiny over security and communications lapses leading up to Trump’s July 13 shooting during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Deputy Director of the agency’s Office of Protective Operations Michael Plati, who led the division responsible for planning protection for Trump, President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Ohio Senator JD Vance and others, ends his tenure there on Friday, his 27th anniversary with the agency.
Michael Plati, deputy director of the US Secret Service’s Office of Protective Operations, is about to retire. (United States Secret Service)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Secret Service said Plati was not asked to resign or leave office, but sources at the highest levels of the internal investigation told Fox News that he was encouraged to take early retirement.
