The top senators who launched a bipartisan investigation last year into the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt on President Trump are no longer cooperating, split on whether the probe should continue.
The Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee initially conducted a bipartisan investigation into the assassination attempt after Mr. Trump was shot in the ear and an attendee of his Butler rally was killed. The panel issued an interim report in September, with sign-off from both parties.
However, on July 13, the anniversary of the Butler shooting, the committee’s new Republican chairman, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, issued a final report that lacked approval from panel Democrats and his fellow Republican investigator, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
“We had a true bipartisan product last year. It came out very quickly, and everybody on the committee signed off on it,” Sen. Gary C. Peters of Michigan, the panel’s top Democrat, told The Washington Times. “It’s interesting in this report; it was only Rand Paul, and not even another Republican signed onto it.”
Mr. Peters, who served as committee chairman last Congress before Republicans took Senate control, said he and other Democrats on the panel did not sign off on Mr. Paul’s final report because “he didn’t work in a bipartisan way.” He also said they still have questions about the assassination attempt.
“Basically, the report he put out is just rehashing the report we did last year,” he said. “So there was really little or no extra work that was put into his report, except that he came up with some conclusions. And the conclusions, they weren’t necessarily supported by any new facts that he put forward.”
A few days before the report’s release, Mr. Paul told The Washington Times that he was seeking bipartisan support for issuing final conclusions but would move forward on his own if needed. He said the investigation “has gone on too long.”
He acknowledged that Democrats and Mr. Johnson, who chairs the committee’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, may not sign off as members seek more information.
“We’ve essentially got the conclusions,” Mr. Paul said. “Big mistakes were made. It shouldn’t have happened. The president almost died. And reforms had to take place. We think most of those have taken place.”
The report detailed the Secret Service’s “cascade of preventable failures” in Butler that nearly cost Mr. Trump his life. It concluded that the agency’s disciplinary penalties were “far too weak.”
The new information included records about disciplinary actions, which Mr. Paul had to subpoena, and a summary of policy changes the Secret Service has made since the committee’s interim report. Mr. Paul also released transcripts of five additional Secret Service employee interviews that the committee conducted last Congress after the interim report.
Mr. Paul’s final report notes the committee’s outstanding information requests to the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“We’ve made many requests, and those have not been met, which is part of why we didn’t sign off,” Mr. Peters said.
He said Democrats want more answers about the assassination attempt, but he declined to give specific examples.
Mr. Johnson told The Times he did not know Mr. Paul planned to release a final report until three days before the July 13 anniversary. At that point, Mr. Johnson was already seeking more information from the FBI.
“Before I want to issue another report, I want more information,” he said. “There literally are a lot of unanswered questions.”
Mr. Johnson has subpoenaed the FBI for records related to its investigation into the Butler assassination attempt, including forensic reports, security camera footage and witness interviews.
He is also seeking any information about Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who fired eight rounds toward Mr. Trump before he was killed by a Secret Service countersniper. That includes information from Crooks’ electronic devices, online search history and financial accounts, as well as associates whom the FBI interviewed.
“I just assumed the Trump administration would hop on this. They have their own challenges. They’re not helping out,” Mr. Johnson said.
He cited Justice Department staffing issues, including attorneys who have left, both voluntarily and involuntarily, and incoming officials awaiting Senate confirmation.
“I view my subpoena as friendly — just kind of ‘OK guys, it’s time,’” the senator said.
Mr. Johnson said the FBI has been cooperating and communicating with his staff on how to fulfill the information requests in the subpoena, with a deadline of Aug. 1.
Mr. Peters said he supports Mr. Johnson’s effort to obtain more information.
“His job is to investigate, and he’s putting in the homework and putting in the effort, and I always support that,” he said.
Asked whether Democrats would work with Mr. Johnson on his subcommittee investigation, Mr. Peters left the door open.
“I don’t know what the next steps will be, but we’ll see,” he said. “Stay tuned.”
Mr. Paul has also said he supports Mr. Johnson’s effort to obtain more information, but he is not sure whether anything is left to dig up on Crooks.
“They want to find something that he talked about,” said Mr. Paul, referring to Crooks’ assassination plot. “I don’t think anybody’s found that. The FBI has told us they’ve never found anything about it.”
Mr. Johnson said he has been in touch with Mr. Paul, Mr. Peters and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the permanent subcommittee on investigations but added that cooperation has been difficult.
“Everybody’s kind of got their own agenda, their own priorities,” he said.
The committee’s bipartisan approach last year was “laborious” and “plodding,” Mr. Johnson said.
“Most of what we know literally does come from my investigators the first week or two, when people were talking,” he said. “Then everybody clammed up, so we’ve all been awaiting information.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.