Biden DOJ, FBI Offered ‘Limited Cooperation,’ Failed To Provide Key Docs To Trump Assassination Attempt Task Force

The Department of Justice and FBI provided only “limited cooperation” to the House task force investigating assassination attempts against President-elect Donald Trump, according to the task force’s final report.

Among recommendations offered in the final report, which include reconsidering whether the Secret Service should remain within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and limiting protection for foreign leaders, the task force wrote that Congress needs to “clarify its right” to obtain information related to law enforcement investigations.

“With respect to the assassination attempt in Butler, the Task Force’s requests for information were characterized by the FBI as implicating ‘significant law enforcement sensitivities,’ and subsequent FBI disclosures were labeled as ‘extraordinary accommodation unique to this matter,’” the report said. “With respect to the assassination attempt in Florida, where the gunman was apprehended alive and awaits a likely prosecution, the FBI provided no documents in response to the Task Force’s request and provided only a single status briefing on September 25, 2024.”

Requests for documents relating to “preparation for, events of, and response to the second assassination attempt” are still outstanding from the DHS, Secret Service, FBI, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the task force said.

The FBI also failed to provide its digital analysis of Butler rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ devices, along with Crooks’ “online activity as well as other specific documentation repeatedly requested by the Task Force.”

“Whether rooted in generalized ‘law enforcement sensitivities’ or an indefinite ‘law enforcement privilege’ that stems from the common law, the phrase ‘ongoing investigation’ should not be treated as a magical incantation that disables Congress’ otherwise broad right of access to relevant information necessary for it to carry out its constitutional functions,” the report said.