2024-07-18 15:14:43
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general announced today that it has opened an investigation into the organization of Secret Service security for former U.S. President Donald Trump at his campaign rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, when an attempted for his murder, the Associated Press reported.
The department said in a brief statement posted on the inspector general’s website (Jeff Kafari – editor’s note) that the purpose of the investigation was to “evaluate the actions of the United States Secret Service in providing security for former President Trump’s campaign event.” on July 13, 2024.” It did not say what day the investigation began, the AP said, noting that its announcement was on a long list of other ongoing activities of the inspector general’s office.
US President Joe Biden has already ordered an independent investigation into security at the Butler event. Twenty-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was later neutralized, managed to position himself 135 meters from the stage where Trump was giving his speech and shoot him.
Trump, wounded in the right ear, was quickly taken off the stage by Secret Service agents, but one person at the rally was killed and two others were seriously injured. The director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, said she fully understood Biden’s reasons for ordering an independent investigation, and that she would cooperate both in this case and with the US congressional committee appointed to investigate. what happened.
Cheatle also said that her office is trying to understand how Saturday’s shooting happened and to ensure that something similar does not happen in the future, BTA writes.
The Secret Service has about 7,800 employees who are responsible for protecting the president and vice president, their families, former presidents, their wives, and their minor children (under 16), as well as some high-ranking members of the government, including the Minister of Homeland Security (currently Alejandro Mayorkas).