WASHINGTON, D.C. –– This week, the House Committee on Homeland Security, led by Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN), heard valuable testimony from Colonel Christopher Paris, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, and Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, to examine the facts and circumstances surrounding the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. During the hearing, United States Secret Service (USSS) Director Kimberly Cheatle, who refused to appear before the Committee, resigned from her role following calls for her resignation from Chairman Green and other Committee members. 
 
In the hearing, Members learned more about the numerous failures in communication and information sharing between the Secret Service and local law enforcement surrounding the rally, including Secret Services’ failure to provide them with an operations plan even 10 days after the attack. Members heard testimony that the Pennsylvania State Police was not responsible for securing the building or property at AGR International—the location where the shooter attempted to assassinate President Trump. Members also heard testimony that, according to Col. Paris’ awareness, the Secret Service did not operate nor request any drones in the air for the rally to add another layer of safety and protection. 

This week’s hearing followed a fact-finding trip led by Chairman Green and Representative Mike Kelly (PA-16), alongside a bipartisan group of House Homeland Security Committee members, to tour the site of the attempted assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

In his opening line of questioning, Chairman Green asked Col. Paris about the coordination and communication between local law enforcement and the Secret Service on the day of the rally:
 
“Do you know if the local sheriff had anybody, or the deputies that were also provided––the local guys.”
 
Col. Paris answered:
 
“I would be remiss at this point to say I knew an exact listing of everyone at that command post.”
 
Chairman Green continued:
 
“The sheriff yesterday told us he did not. Would you expect him to have had somebody there?”
 
Col. Paris answered:
 
“So I would say generally there’s a lot of talk about interoperability and communications. State police for example operate our own statewide radio network. So we have the ability to, if we have an incident, a long protracted incident for example where we need to patch other agencies in, we have the capability to do that. However, the Secret Service for example maintained some additional encrypted communications. So the best way to integrate unified command––”
 
Chairman Green continued:

“–Is physically present in the command site, yeah, that’s how the Army does, and the military.”
 
Col. Paris answered:
 
“I would expect our commanders to have personnel in there so that we could have radio communication, as well as a redundancy in the operations plan with a telephonic backup.”
 
Chairman Green continued:
 
“Do you know in this particular case––I mean, normally, they sweep these sites with dogs. Was a K-9 team used here for this event?”
 
Col. Paris answered:

“I do not know. I have not seen the Secret Service operations plan. I have asked for it, I have yet to receive it. I did double check, that was something that PSP could typically offer to the Secret Service if they requested it. And I did verify that in this event we did not provide any dogs.”

House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) asked about Secret Service and local law enforcement counter-snipers:

“We actually walked onto the roof where the sniper was. A clear, eyes-on, clear shot of the president. A tree blocked the Secret Service’s view. This kid did some investigation. He had a drone out there days prior, got an aerial surveillance of the premises, and that position was probably the best position outside the perimeter, as far as I can tell. There is also a water tower. That would have been a perfect spot for the Secret Service. Are you aware of any presence of secret service in this water tower?”
 
Col. Paris answered:
 
“I was not.”
 
Rep. McCaul continued: 
 
“And are you aware of what I’m talking about?”
 
Col. Paris answered:

“I am familiar. I physically flew out there on Saturday the 13th. It was still very much an active crime scene so I did not walk on the roofs.”
 
Rep. McCaul continued:
 
“On the adjacent building we got a tour of that as well, where I believe the local police were positioned. There were three windows, the first one had a plain view of where the sniper would be, however they were stationed in the second and third windows. Are you familiar with this at all?”
 
Col. Paris answered:
 
“I am not from the standpoint that I have not seen the Secret Services’ operation plan and our difference would be to them to assign Butler ESU–”
 
Rep. McCaul continued: 
 
“And there apparently local counter-snipers. Do you know if they should have been assigned to the rooftop?” Col. Paris answered: “I would defer to––there are many ways you can cover, obviously, positioning people on the rooftop would be one of those.” 

Vice Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) slammed DHS’ refusal to provide state and local law enforcement with its operations plan and asked Col. Paris about the use of drones to secure the area for the rally:

“The fact that the Secret Service is stonewalling your investigation, that they’re not providing you this information, we saw the testimony yesterday from the Secret Service director where she refused to answer questions and has now resigned. I find that to be especially troubling. We have the Secret Service not wanting to cooperate with Congress not wanting to cooperate with a fellow law enforcement agency, and I personally find that troubling. 
 
“As we look and as you are aware from speaking to your officers that were there physically on the scene that day, did the Secret Service have any drones in the air so that they could have an eye in the sky and see what was happening, to your knowledge?”
 
Col. Paris answered: 
 
“To my knowledge I am not aware that they were using drones, but I haven’t seen the operations plan.”
 
Rep. Guest continued:
 
“And does your agency have drones?”
 
Col. Paris answered: 

“We do maintain some drones.” 

Rep. Guest continued:  

“So, if the Secret Service would have requested your agency to fly drones that day, you would have been able to do so, is that correct?” Col. Paris concluded: “We would have endeavored to try to honor that request.”

Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC) asked Col. Paris if, to his knowledge, there were officers stationed at the second-floor window of the building that the shooter shot from:

“Colonel Paris, are you aware whether any law enforcement officer, or officers was, or were posted in the second-floor window of the AGR building?” 

[…] 

Col. Paris answered: 

“To my knowledge, there were two posted there from Butler ESU.” 

Rep. Bishop continued: 

“And you’ve said Butler ESU, what does the acronym ESU stand for?” 

Col. Paris answered: 

“Emergency Services Unit. It’s a team that comprises multiple agencies that pull resources on a county or several county basis in order to enhance capabilities and training and be able to respond. Basically a mutual aid agreement is my understanding of it.” 

Rep. Bishop asked: 

“Is it sort of like a SWAT team?” 

Col. Paris answered: 

“They are trained in SWAT tactics, to my knowledge.” 

Rep. Bishop asked: 

“How many ESU officers were posted to that second-floor window?” 

Col. Paris answered: 

“So, I am aware two were in the building, but again, I have not seen the Secret Service operations plan.” 

Rep. Bishop continued: 

“You say in the building—were they in a window [looking] out onto the scene?” 

Col. Paris answered:

“From briefings that I have been given, I was told they were in a window, yes sir.”
 
Rep. Bishop continued:
 
“Did they remain on post?”
 
Col. Paris answered:
 
“I was told that at a certain point, they began searching along with other local officers. In the immediacy before––after Crooks had been identified as suspicious by them–”
 
Rep. Bishop continued:
 
“By them?”

Col. Paris answered: 

“My understanding is that they identified Crooks for not matriculating, to my knowledge, Crooks never made it through the secure perimeter into the venue space itself. He was identified by those members as suspicious, in part, because of that. And at some point he produced the range finder which heighted that suspicion.” 

Rep. Bishop asked: 

“So, Representative Crane took a video on site yesterday. I’d like staff to put that up, it’s very short, just a few seconds, if they can do that. If I understand correctly, this is from the second-story window of the AGR building. You see that window comes out from the sash and swings out to the right. There’s an aerial photo right after Crooks was killed, where Crook’s body is on the roof and that window was open. Was it from this vantage point that those ESU officers spotted Crooks?” 

Col. Paris answered: 

“I don’t know that particular window, but my understanding is a second-story window was where he was initially spotted.” 

Rep. Bishop asked: 

“So are you saying that, to your knowledge, those ESU officers left the location where they could look out the window to go in search of this person?” 

Col. Paris answered: 

“That is my understanding.”
 
Rep. Bishop asked:
 
“So sometime between the time he was spotted on the ground and identified as someone suspicious, until the shooting, they had left that post to go look for him?”
 
Col. Paris answered:
 
“My understanding is yes, along with other municipal officers that responded to that area. And that’s based on interviews that we’ve conducted and I want to be very clear that I don’t want to establish a timeline minute by minute because we don’t have that yet.”

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