The house task force on the two assassination attempts on President-elect Trump will meet on Thursday for his final hearing before the release of his long-awaited report.
US Secret Service (USSS) Director Ronald Rowe will testify before lawmakers. Members of the task force will then gather behind closed doors to discuss their final report.
Chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said the hearing was about restoring confidence in federal law enforcement.
“The main thing we’re working on is that the public needs to know what happened that day because there’s still a lot of confusion about it,” Kelly told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
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The Trump assassination task force, led by Reps. Mike Kelly, left, and Jason Crow, right, is nearing the end of its investigation. (Getty Images)
“When we look at the Secret Service, it’s always the elite of the elite. So I think what we’re trying to do is create a situation where… we can rebuild that trust.”
Trump was holding a rally in Kelly’s district on July 13 when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire at the event from just outside the security zone, wounding Trump and others. One participant in the meeting was killed.
Later in September, USSS agents opened fire a 58-year-old man who pointed a gun at Trump’s golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, where the president-elect was out for the day.
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Acting Director of the United States Secret Service Ronald Rowe will testify on Thursday. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
The incidents led to heavy scrutiny of the USSS and its security practices and led to the ouster of USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle.
And while Kelly admitted he “would rather” Cheatle testify before his task force, he praised Rowe’s handling of the situation since he succeeded her.
“From the beginning he said, ‘Look, it was all our fault. This is the worst situation the Secret Service has ever had,'” he said.
The Secret Service knew that airspace protection would end when the former president was on stage
A video of James Copenhaver, one of the victims seriously injured in an assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, shows a figure moving across a roof just minutes before gunfire rang out at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. (James Copenhaver)
Kelly said he expected the final report to be released around December 13, the task force’s “deadline” for releasing the results of its investigation.
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The panel has a interim report in late October reporting “a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the meeting.”
USSS personnel at the event “did not provide clear guidance” to state and local authorities on how to manage security outside their hard perimeter, nor was there a central meeting between USSS and the law enforcement agencies supporting them on the morning of the meeting , according to findings presented as key shortcomings in the 51-page report.
