Senate, House panels plan to release first Trump assassination attempt reports next week

The Senate and House panels investigating the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump are planning to release preliminary reports next week outlining security failures that occurred at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The reports are set to come as lawmakers have been raising questions about whether the Secret Service has done enough to protect Mr. Trump after a second would-be assassin camped outside his golf club in Florida on Sunday with a rifle but was stopped by Secret Service before firing any shots.

“Two assassination attempts in two months is an indication that he needs more protection,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s ranking Republican. “On the initial assassination [attempt], there are many, many things that went wrong. And we’re going to have a report on that soon detailing the mistakes that were made.”

The Senate report’s release date hasn’t been finalized, but the panel wants it publicized next week.

“That’s our goal,” Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters, Michigan Democrat, said, noting his panel wants to release the report before Congress adjourns until after the Nov. 5 election.

Mr. Peters said the committee has also begun probing the Florida incident, which the FBI is investigating as a second assassination attempt on Mr. Trump.

“We’re getting briefings from the Secret Service,” he said. “We’re asking questions, and that’s going to continue.”

The House task force is also asking the Secret Service for information on the second attempt as it continues its probe into the first. Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that the task force is planning to hold a hearing next week on the failures surrounding the Pennsylvania rally, where Mr. Trump was hit in the ear by a bullet, and to issue an interim report on its investigation. The panel is tasked with producing a full report by Dec. 13.

Lawmakers in both parties have expressed frustration with the Department of Homeland Security’s lack of cooperation with their inquiries. The Secret Service is an agency that falls under DHS control.

“The Secret Service is very directly aware of our dissatisfaction and, frankly, seems more sympathetic than the Department of Homeland Security,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, said. “Acting Director [Ronald] Rowe has been pretty frank and candid about the failings of the Secret Service in Butler. We had a briefing last week from him.”

The fact that DHS has not provided congressional investigators with all the information they requested is among the reasons the report the committee hopes to release next week is “preliminary,” he said.

Mr. Blumenthal chairs the Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has taken a leading role in the full committee’s probe.

“The draft is a work in progress, as we speak,” he said. “And our goal is to finish that draft imminently and to release it publicly next week.”

Mr. Blumenthal said the committee has not decided whether to hold additional hearings as part of the investigation. The panel held a joint hearing with the Judiciary Committee at the end of July, with testimony from Mr. Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations’ ranking Republican, is calling on Democrats in charge of the panel to issue subpoenas to force more cooperation from DHS and the FBI, the latter of which has not provided transcripts of its witness interviews that he requested months ago.