House Panel Points to Secret Service Failures in Trump Assassination Attempts

A bipartisan House panel suggested that the U.S. Secret Service, not local police, failed in preventing two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump. The panel highlighted multiple security lapses and presented findings from interviews and documents gathered over two months.

Members of a bipartisan House panel investigating the Trump assassination attempts suggested during its first hearing Thursday that the U.S. Secret Service, not local police, failed to prevent a gunman from opening fire on former President Donald Trump.

In his opening statement, Republican co-chair Rep. Mike Kelly blamed multiple failures by the Secret Service that allowed the gunman, Thomas Michael Crooks, to gain access to a roof and open fire, wounding Trump and killing another man at the rally.

The panel of seven Republicans and six Democrats has spent two months analyzing these security lapses. They are also looking into a separate incident involving another assassination attempt thwarted on Trump's Florida golf course. Thursday's hearing focused on the use of local law enforcement, with testimony from Pennsylvania and Butler County police officials.

(With inputs from agencies.)