Mayorkas names panel to conduct review of Trump assassination attempt

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayrokas has named a panel of experts to conduct an independent review of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

 The panel includes Janet Napolitano, the Obama-era DHS secretary; Fran Townsend, the Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush; former federal Judge Mark Filip, who served as Bush’s deputy attorney general; and David Mitchell, the former superintendent of Maryland State Police and former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the State of Delaware. Other experts could be named to the panel in the coming days.

“We are committed to getting to the bottom of what happened on July 13, and I am grateful to the distinguished members of this independent review who will bring decades of expertise in law enforcement and security operations to this important investigation,” Mayorkas said, adding: “This independent review will examine what happened and provide actionable recommendations to ensure they carry out their no-fail mission most effectively and to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”

The announcement comes in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday, a shooting in which one person was killed and two others critically wounded. Secret Service agents killed the gunman.

Mayorkas, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, told NPR last week “there indeed was a failure on Saturday.”

At issue is why Trump, despite being granted additional Secret Service protection because of the threat of an alleged Iranian plot against him, was hit by the gunman. The Secret Service’s role, as well as whether local police did enough to stop the shooter, and the placement of security around the Trump rally in Butler, Pa., have also been the subject of scrutiny. A decision not to cover the building from where the shooter fired – about 130 yards from where Trump was speaking – allowed the gunman to take his shot, said former deputy assistant director for the Secret Service Bill Pickle.

“I think it's human error more than it is perimeter,” Pickle said. “Perimeter really, to me, is just avoiding the fact that there was not sufficient coverage or resources to stop that from happening.”

Any oversight will likely include the various points at which mistakes were made in planning security for the rally. William Basham, a former Secret Service director, said before such events, an advance agent for the Secret Service is charged with standing at that podium where the president was standing and get a full 360-degree view of what needs to be covered. At that point in the process, it was decided not to directly cover the roof from where the shot was taken.

“There was a breakdown in communications,” he said. “There was a breakdown in terms of security planning, should have had somebody on that roof. And I just don't think there's a whole lot of mystery about what happened here.”

Lawmakers in Congress are launching their own investigations into the incident. Congress has raised concerns about the Secret Service in the past, and lawmakers are expecting briefings in the coming days. The House Oversight Committee expects to hear from Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testify when Congress returns on Monday.