House votes to set up bipartisan task force to investigate Trump assassination attempt
By Clare Foran, Annie Grayer and Haley Talbot, CNN
(CNN) — The House voted on Wednesday to create a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The move comes as lawmakers seek answers and accountability after the 2024 Republican presidential candidate was shot at during a rally in Pennsylvania this month. A resolution to establish the task force was approved in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 416 to 0.
The House task force will be made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats and will have subpoena authority, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries announced this week.
Johnson told CNN on Wednesday that the appointments to the task force will be announced on Thursday. Jeffries’ nominations to the task force will be handled “after consultation” with Johnson.
The work of the task force will be done “quickly, efficiently, effectively, and that’s what the American people demanded,” Johnson said Wednesday.
It will issue a final report on its findings no later than December 13, 2024, “including any recommendations for legislative reforms necessary to prevent future security lapses,” according to the text of the resolution the House passed.
Congress has moved swiftly to investigate the security failures that led to the shooting on July 13. After mounting pressure and calls from lawmakers to step down, US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned this week.
On Monday, Cheatle was grilled at length by the House Oversight Committee over security failures related to the assassination attempt. On Tuesday, a Pennsylvania state police commissioner offered striking testimony about the security failures that led to the near assassination of Trump. And on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that Trump’s would-be assassin searched for details of the John F. Kennedy shooting from his laptop and flew a drone in the area near the rally just two hours before the former president took the stage.
The task force “will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make certain such failures never happen again,” Johnson and Jeffries said in a joint statement earlier this week.
According to the resolution establishing the task force, it will “investigate and fully examine all actions by any agency, department, officer, or employee of the federal government, as well as state and local law enforcement or any other State or local government or private entities or individuals, related to the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
The task force will also be empowered to issue interim reports “it deems necessary.” In addition to having subpoena power, the task force can take depositions, according to the resolution.
CNN’s Lauren Fox and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.
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