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Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, and Jason Crow, D-Colo., lead the House task force on attempted assassinations of Donald Trump; the task force issues subpoenas to the ATF for documents it had previously requested but still has not received.
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Task force on Trump assassination attempt subpoenas ATF, demanding interviews, documents

Benjamin Kail/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Task force on Trump assassination attempt subpoenas ATF, demanding interviews, documents

Chair Rep. Mike Kelly says agency has failed to provide interviews, docs in timely fashion

WASHINGTON — The House task force investigating assassination attempts on President-elect Donald Trump subpoenaed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Monday, demanding depositions and documents linked to the agency’s response to the shooting at a Butler Trump rally on July 13.

The task force on Tuesday said the ATF had failed to provide any documents or make any personnel available for interviews despite chairman Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, and ranking member Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., sending the agency two letters since Oct. 3 requesting records and testimony. 

“The Task Force’s pressing need for your testimony is further perpetuated by the condensed timeframe in which it is operating,” Mr. Kelly wrote in subpoena letters to two ATF employees. “Given your role in the investigation after the attempted assassination on July 13, the Task Force believes you have critical information pertinent to its inquiry.”

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One of the subpoenas for depositions was issued to an agent directly involved in the agency’s response to the July 13 shooting; the other is for testimony from a supervisory agent, the task force said.

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The ATF did not immediate respond to a message seeking comment.

In October, the task force requested all ATF records including transcripts, communications, reports and details on personnel involved in responding to the Butler shooting and an apparent thwarted assassination attempt at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla. on Sept. 15, according to a letter to ATF leadership shared with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Part of a series of investigative requests to federal, state and local agencies over the past several months, the letter came not long before Trump returned to the site where he was nearly assassinated. 

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The Secret Service has acknowledged severe planning and communication failures leading up to and during the Butler rally. President Joe Biden ordered the agency to provide Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, the same level of protection as provided to the president. 

Lawmakers on the task force are curious to find out more about the ATF’s response on the Butler Farm Show grounds, where 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire during Trump’s speech, and “ATF’s discovery and investigation of the improvised explosive device found” at Mr. Crooks’ home, as well as efforts to find “the ultimate location of, and investigation of [his] vehicle,” the task force said last month.

Mr. Kelly and Mr. Crow asked ATF Director Steven Dettelbach for “all documents and communications related to all credible threats to former President Donald J. Trump based on intelligence developed by any federal agency and shared with ATF that were considered active, ongoing or unresolved” as of the July and September events. 

On Sept. 15, authorities arrested 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh after he allegedly staked out one of Trump’s Florida golf courses for nearly half a day before the barrel of his rifle was spotted through shrubbery by a Secret Service agent scanning the course ahead of where the former president was playing. The agent fired toward Mr. Routh, who fled and drove away before being caught later that day; he now faces federal gun and attempted assassination charges.

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Mr. Kelly has said the task force is on track to release a final report on its investigation in December.

First Published: November 19, 2024, 9:55 p.m.
Updated: November 20, 2024, 6:50 p.m.

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Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, and Jason Crow, D-Colo., lead the House task force on attempted assassinations of Donald Trump; the task force issues subpoenas to the ATF for documents it had previously requested but still has not received.  (Benjamin Kail/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Benjamin Kail/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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