House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) subpoenaed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify in a hearing on July 22 regarding the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.
The committee had requested Cheatle’s “voluntary” attendance on July 13, but lawmakers on the Oversight Committee have claimed the Homeland Security Department is preventing the Secret Service from cooperating with its investigation into the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Initially, the Secret Service committed to your attendance,” a letter to Cheatle from Comer said. “Subsequently, however, DHS officials appear to have intervened and your attendance is now in question. In addition, since DHS’s intervention, there have been no meaningful updates or information shared with the Committee.”
“The lack of transparency and failure to cooperate with the Committee on this pressing matter by both DHS and the Secret Service further calls into question your ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the attached subpoena compelling your appearance before the Oversight Committee,” he continued.
The Oversight Committee was scheduled to get a virtual briefing from the Secret Service on Tuesday.
Many GOP lawmakers are pushing for Cheatle to resign, threatening to defund her salary and conduct independent investigations of the shooting. Public congressional hearings are also already on committee schedules, but Cheatle has insisted that she will not step down.
Republicans from the Oversight, Judiciary, and Homeland Security committees are all inquiring for information on the FBI’s investigation of the assassination attempt. The agency recently gained access to the phone of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20. Crooks opened fire on rally attendees, killing one and injuring two others. Trump was struck by a bullet in the right ear.
Crooks had climbed on a rooftop outside the event on Saturday and fired multiple shots toward Trump. A Secret Service countersniper on another roof killed Crooks after he opened fire. Republicans quickly jumped on the situation as a massive security failure that allowed Crooks to have a clear shot at the former president.
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Investigators have conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement officers and witnesses and have completed searches of Crooks’s home and vehicle, the FBI said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Secret Service for comment.
