Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has revealed that the Secret Service has prevented the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) from obtaining crucial documents in relation to the catastrophic failure which led to both assassination attempts against form President Donald Trump.
“Things like the autopsy report, you know, the House has it under subpoena. We don’t have it,” Johnston told reporters.
“[The] toxicology report; we don’t have any of the trajectory reports. So, where’d the bullets go?”
“We don’t even know how they handled the crime scene,” said Johnson, ranking member of the HSGAC Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI).
The senator highlighted that it has been over two months since Trump’s first assassination attempt, noting, “There’s just basic information we should have right now, and we don’t have it.”
“We haven’t been able to interview the sniper who took out [Thomas] Crooks,” Johnson said.
Crooks opened fire at Donald Trump‘s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, almost taking the life of the former president and, killing a rally attendee, and critically injuring two others.
Johnson said the sniper who shot Crooks was the first person he wanted to interview.
He also added that he had not received any FD-302 forms from the FBI, which were used to investigate through interview results.
Johnson also revealed that FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate previously told him the bureau would provide the forms as soon as possible.
“I haven’t gotten one,” he said.
“They’ve done 1,000 interviews. We’ve done 12,” the senator said.
The Wisconsin Republican said the agency is slow-walking and that both HSGAC and PSI from Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe did not provide him with any new information.
Johnson said that the documents s provided to the lawmakers were “heavily redacted.”
“And in this case, unusually. I’ve never seen this,” he remarked of the redactions.
Johnson recalled that redactions are normally black, blocking out certain parts of the text, saying, “These are just whiteouts.”
“So, I don’t know. Was it just a single word?” he asked.
According to the Senator, it wasn’t evident whether something had been obscured in the documents or not due to the white redactions
“That’s the level of opacity that we’re getting in terms of their lack of cooperation with our investigation,” Johnson added.
However, the Secret Service claimed they are cooperating with Congress’ investigations despite accusations of stonewalling.”
“The U.S. Secret Service is cooperating with a wide range of reviews and investigations related to the attempted assassination on Former President Donald Trump. This includes multiple Congressional investigations, including inquiries by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in the Senate, and a special bipartisan task force in the House of Representatives,” a spokesperson for the Secret Service told Fox News.
“Since July 13, we have provided more than 2,800 pages of responsive documentation to these entities and have made our employees available for interviews as requested.”
“On Sept. 12, Acting Director Ron Rowe briefed members of U.S. House and Senate committees regarding the agency’s mission assurance investigation.”
“Given the volume of requests, the jurisdiction of requesters, and the finite capacity of resources and staff to respond, the U.S. Secret Service is prioritizing our responses to those listed above.”
