FIRST ON FOX: As details slowly emerge about the assassination attempt against former President Trump, one Republican lawmaker is introducing a bill to force the federal government to declassify all information related to the event.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., will introduce the “Trump Assassination Attempt Transparency Act” on Thursday, just a day after FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee about the Trump rally shooting and investigation into gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“We need the truth about the assassination attempt against President Trump,” Hawley told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We can’t let the federal government hide behind the ‘classified’ label.”
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The bill would require the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Secretary of Homeland Securtiy to declassify any critical information about the assassination attempt and the motive of the shooter as well as Trump’s repeated requests for resources. The legislation, if passed, would also require intelligence agencies to produce a report to Congress on its findings.
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned this week a day after taking bipartisan heat during testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Monday and over a week after a would-be assassin Thomas Crooks attempted to take the life of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Trump, during his Pennsylvania rally, narrowly evaded being shot in the head after slightly turning to read a chart on one of the screens, missing the bullet shot by 20-year-old suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks’ AR-15-style rifle by just a quarter of an inch. The bullet hit him, instead, in his upper right ear.
One of the bullets fired by Crooks killed former firefighter chief, father and husband Corey Comperatore as he shielded his family from the incoming fire that also critically injured two other bystanders.
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More questions than answers have arisen since the near-catastrophic event, as lawmakers attempt to piece together what security failures happened that day and continue to probe intelligence officials.
“This investigation must be done out in the open for the American people to see – no more stonewalling, no more evading questions,” Hawley said. “Time for accountability.”
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The House of Representatives also unanimously voted Thursday morning to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the attempted assassination of Trump.
The vote was bipartisan, as expected — the hours following the shooting prompted a flurry of bipartisan condemnations against political violence, as well as scrutiny of the security situation that allowed a 20-year-old gunman with a rifle onto a rooftop just outside the rally perimeter.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
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