(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The House Task Force investigating the Trump assassination attempts wrote to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach on Thursday to demand the agency’s records on both incidents.
The Task Force’s letter follows a closed-door briefing the ATF provided to lawmakers on Sept. 9—six days before the second attempt at Trump’s Florida golf course on Sept. 15.
The Task Force’s letter mostly focused on the first attempt on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania—specifically, about the ATF’s response to the explosives found at gunman Thomas Crooks’s home and vehicle.
“Documents and materials shall also include those related to: (i) ATF’s discovery and investigation of the improvised explosive device found at the home of Matthew Crooks; and (ii) efforts to locate, the ultimate location of, and investigation of Thomas Matthew Crooks’s vehicle,” the Task Force said in its document request.
The Task Force also requested every document the ATF has provided to the FBI about both attempts.
The Task Force’s request will hopefully yield information that explains why an unidentified, plain-clothes ATF agent was at the Butler rally in his “personal capacity”—as the ATF told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Recently released interview transcripts show that a Secret Service agent encountered that ATF agent before the shooting, but didn’t question his presence or his credentials.
According to the interview transcripts, the Secret Service site agent said the ATF agent approached her before the shooting with concerns about a bike rack that was used as a crowd barrier.
“He was concerned that people, it might fall over, that people might, you know, be able to, to get, you know, get over it. And so then he kind of brought it to my attention. I was like, ‘Well, who are you?’ … He said, ‘ATF,’” the agent told lawmakers, according to her interview transcript.
“He just was acting like part of the plan … And then I just, I didn’t ask any further questions. I mean, at that point I was just like, okay. I don’t know,” she said.
“I still don’t know why ATF was there or who asked them to be there or what their role was,” she added.
According to the Senate’s report on the Trump shooting, the ATF said the agent was there in a “personal capacity.”
“ATF told the Committee that there was an ATF agent present in his personal capacity at the Butler rally on July 13 but that ATF as an agency had no official presence at the rally and did not provide any security assistance before shots were fired. The committee has yet to speak with the ATF agent who was at the rally,” the report said.
The committee added that it “continues to seek a transcribed interview” with the agent, and that it is still seeking info “related to any ATF facial recognition searches of Crooks’ body.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
