The Secret Service and FBI are continuing to "stonewall and slow walk" the congressional investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, including on his would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, Sen. Ron Johnson told Newsmax on Thursday.
"We already knew that this was a spectacular failure by the U.S. Secret Service," the Wisconsin Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," while commenting on the Senate's report that the shooting on July 13 was preventable.
"What information we have, people need to understand, has primarily come from local law enforcement, from body cams, from audio and visual, from the public," he added.
Federal officials, though are "holding their information very close to their vest, so people first need to understand that," the senator said.
Johnson said his staff reached out to local law enforcement officials within the first week after the shootings and issued preliminary findings, with the Senate report putting "meat on those bones."
For example, the report revealed that a second sniper team had an obstructed view and couldn't see would-be assassin Crooks, and he couldn't see them.
"Those two snipers believe a bullet whizzed between them, and we've only been able to interview one of them, but his testimony is pretty compelling," said Johnson. "That opens up all kinds of questions. How did a bullet fly from Crooks's rifle through a tree and miss those two snipers? I mean, that's pretty bizarre."
Meanwhile, there has been no autopsy or toxicology reports released from Crooks, and Johnson said he's asked FBI deputy Director Paul Abbate several times for the transcripts of more than 1,000 interviews that have been conducted in the agency's probe.
"We've only been able to interview 12 Secret Service personnel," said Johnson. "Primarily, we've had those targeted to the right individuals because my staff talked to local law enforcement and got the names of the agents on the ground. Had we not done that, we wouldn't even know who to talk to, and I would guess that the Secret Service wouldn't be cooperative there."
Johnson also noted that the FBI released Crooks' body to his family for cremation, and said that the Senate will likely have to subpoena autopsy results.
"The FBI said, well, it's standard operating procedure to release the body once we're done with it. Well, this isn't a standard situation," the senator said. "This is an assassination attempt on the former president of the United States. You know, our candidate for president. We shouldn't be following standard protocol. At a minimum, they should have released that autopsy report, the toxicology report for experts to review to see if there are any further questions."
Johnson added that he also wants to see the crime scene photos, which also have not been received.
"I want to get a crime scene expert in to testify to us in terms of how it should have been handled versus how it was handled again," said Johnson.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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