Important Takeaways:
- Lawmakers, legal groups urge government to release first assassination attempt documents
- A conservative legal watchdog group is heading to court to get the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to explain how gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks had been able to “fire a relatively simple shot that came within an inch of killing President Trump and struck fellow Americans.”
- In a lawsuit filed Thursday, America First Legal (AFL) alleges that the Secret Service and DHS illegally concealed government records related to the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The organization claims it submitted multiple public records requests about the incident but still has not received any documents.
- AFL requested documents pertaining to the Secret Service’s staffing shortages, hiring and employment standards and all communications to or from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and two senior DHS officials, Kristie Canegallo and Jonathan Davidson.
- According to AFL, the Secret Service said it would not process their expedited public records’ requests because there was “no threat to the life or safety of anyone” and that there was no urgency to grant their request.
- Lawmakers on Capitol Hill — both Republican and Democratic — have also been trying to obtain documents from government agencies related to the events that unfolded that day and what security lapses may have occurred.
- In light of the second attempted assassination of Trump’s life at his golf course in Florida last week, AFL said in it statement: “There is no denying that President Trump currently faces genuine threats, and AFL’s requests would help to ensure that USSS and DHS leadership are sufficiently trained and staffed to ensure the safety of President Trump.”
- “The American people and Congress need total transparency,” the group said.
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