BUTLER, Pennsylvania — A group of bipartisan U.S. lawmakers from a task force investigating the assassination attempt on former President Trump are expected to visit the crime scene in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Monday — some of them for the second time since the July 13 incident.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced the creation of a task force on Trump's assassination on August 4 and appointed Republican Senator from Pennsylvania Mike Kelly to head the committee.
“We have complete confidence in this bipartisan group of trusted, highly qualified and capable members of Congress to quickly uncover the facts, hold those responsible to account, and help ensure that such failures are never repeated,” Johnson and Jeffries said in a statement at the time.
The goal of the task force is to “find out what went wrong on the day of the attempted assassination,” “ensure accountability” and “prevent such agency failures from ever happening again,” the task force's website states.
Attempted Trump assassin was seen at rally in Pennsylvania shortly before he opened fire
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) speaks to the press at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 22, 2024. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
Republican members of the task force include Kelly, Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, David Joyce of Ohio, Laurel Lee of Florida, Michael Waltz of Florida, Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Pat Fallon of Texas.
Democratic members include Jason Crow of Colorado, J. Luis Correa of California, Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Glenn Ivey of Maryland and Jared Moskowitz of Florida.
The visit came days after Fox News confirmed that at least five U.S. intelligence officials had been placed on leave more than a month after the assassination attempt at a Trump campaign rally on July 13. One man in the audience was killed and two others seriously injured when the gunman opened fire on Trump, grazing his ear.
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New video from James Copenhaver, one of the victims critically injured in an assassination attempt on former President Trump on July 13, shows a figure moving across a rooftop just minutes before shots rang out at Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. (James Copenhagen)
Officers surround Thomas Crooks on the roof of AGR after he was killed by snipers. (Butler Township Police Department)
The task force wants to hear from informants and whistleblowers how 20-year-old shooter Thomas Crooks was able to climb over heating and ventilation equipment and pipes to the roof of the nearby American Glass Research (AGR) building and hide there until he began shooting at around 6:11 p.m.
The FBI said during a July press conference that Crooks was carrying a DPMS AR-15-style firearm with a folding stock when he entered the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds area where Trump's campaign rally was taking place.
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Drone footage shows lawmakers climbing to the roof of the AGR building, where Thomas Crooks took up position to shoot Trump. (Fox News Digital)
The Trump campaign announced the Butler rally on July 3. Three days later, on July 6, Crooks signed up for the event. That same day, he was researching how far Lee Harvey Oswald was from President Kennedy when Oswald assassinated him in 1963. On July 7, Crooks traveled to the rally site and spent about 20 minutes there, according to the FBI.
Crooks' interest in firearms began around 2023 when he began taking shooting lessons. In the spring of 2023, he purchased 25 firearms online under an alias.
Crooks' father had legally purchased the AR-15 rifle Crooks used at the rally and legally transferred it to his son. Crooks had also legally purchased 50 rounds of ammunition from a local gun store the morning of the rally.
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Thomas Crooks is seen at the Trump rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Senator Ron Johnson)
On the day of the rally, July 13, Crooks parked his vehicle and between 3:50 and 4 p.m. flew a drone about 600 feet from where the former president would speak. FBI Director Christopher Wray testified during a congressional hearing on July 17 that Crooks was at the rally site for about 70 minutes on the morning of the attack.
It is still unclear how Crooks was able to evade security forces despite being spotted by police more than an hour before the shooting. However, the FBI said more than 300 agents and staff are working “around the clock” to gather facts and establish a clearer timeline of Crooks' actions.
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Investigators discovered eight bullets on the roof from which Crooks fired, the agency said in the phone call.
Police first reported a suspicious person near the rally site at around 5:10 p.m. on July 13, one hour and one minute before Crooks began shooting. Local police notified dispatch of the suspicious person and received confirmation that the Secret Service was aware of their presence.
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This map lists locations of interest related to the investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Senator Chuck Grassley)
Over the next hour, law enforcement officers identified a suspect and snipers took photos of Crooks and his bicycle, which was abandoned near the rally site. Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who was briefed on the assassination attempt, previously told Fox News Digital that a sniper had “his eye” on the suspect about 20 minutes before Crooks fired the shot.
Trump took the podium around 6 p.m., an hour after his scheduled speech. Eleven minutes later Crooks fired several shotsCorey Comperatore, 50, was killed, and David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, were seriously injured. Both men were taken to hospital and have since been released.
WATCH: VIDEO SHOWS PA POLICE ASKING WHY ROOF WAS UNMANNED
Green, Kelly, Higgins and Correa had already visited the site of the attack on July 24 together with the House Homeland Security Committee.
Kelly, who is from the area, had previously told Fox News Digital that it was unclear why the former president was allowed on stage even though authorities had known hours earlier that he was a suspect.
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Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., speaks to the press at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 22, 2024. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
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“If there was any suspicion that there was someone suspicious here, why did we even allow President Trump to come to the podium … and why did we continue the program?” he said during his July 24 visit. “I can tell you it was a terrible day for the American people to be there … to watch the president go down, to watch Corey go down right over my left shoulder. And then a couple of other gentlemen sitting across from the president were struck by bullets as well. It was a terrible day for America.”
FBI officials are trying to determine Crooks' motive for the attempted murder and whether there were co-conspirators, but the agency said there is no evidence that anyone else was involved in the attack.
