(Headline USA) A top Senate Democrat blasted the Biden administration this week for refusing to hand over information regarding the two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump in a timely manner.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the U.S. Secret Service, has been “almost derelict in its duty by resisting our requests for documents, evidence, and information that are necessary to investigate.”
The Democrat added that he has become “angry” that Biden officials have not been more “forthcoming,” especially in light of the second failed assassination attempt against Trump on Sunday.
According to reports, several authorities—including the FBI—were alerted last year about would-be assassin Ryan Routh’s desire to kill former President Donald Trump.
Blumenthal—who voted with his 47 fellow Senate Democrats and three independents to dismiss House impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in April—appeared to be having buyer’s remorse.
“We may need to require more cooperation from them,” he said. “And we have the power to do so through the compulsory process—in other words, the subpoena power.”
Blumenthal hinted last week, following a closed-door briefing, that Americans will be “appalled” by some of the failures he and his colleagues had discovered throughout the course of their recent investigation into the Secret Service.
The report is expected to be publicly released later this week.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., the ranking minority member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, suggested that one of the reasons Blumenthal and other Senate Democrats were so upset was because they expected Biden’s team to be more willing to work with them.
“I wrote a letter that it took us a couple weeks for all four offices to sign onto … We sent it to Secret Service and DHS,” Johnson said.
“We got a response in four hours, and the response was pretty disrespectful,” he added. “And I think that fired up [Sen. Gary] Peters and Chairman Blumenthal… I think that’s the reaction you heard last week. They’re not happy with the way [the Biden administration is] treating them.”
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson denied that the agency had been “stonewalling” lawmakers’ investigation into the initial assassination attempt.
“[DHS] remains committed to working in good faith and making every effort to cooperate with the appropriate and relevant investigations into July 13th to identify how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again,” the spokesperson claimed.
