Acting Secret Service director ‘can’t justify’ security breach at Trump rally

The acting director of the Secret Service said Tuesday that he “cannot justify” that the roof used by the attacker in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was not insured.

Ronald Rowe testified before two Senate committees on Tuesday. He said he recently traveled to the site of the attack in Pennsylvania and said what he saw made him feel ashamed. The FBI’s second-highest ranking official will also testify.

Senators planned to question officials about law enforcement failures in the hours before the attempted assassination of Trump, in the latest in a series of congressional hearings devoted to the attack.

Rowe became acting director of the agency last week, following the Kimberly Cheatle resigns after a House hearing in which she was rebuked by lawmakers and failed to answer specific questions about communication failures leading up to the July 13 attack.

Rowe was appearing alongside FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.

“If this had happened in the military, a lot of people would have been fired,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “And if a lot of people aren’t fired, the system has failed again.”

He added: “Nothing will change until someone loses their job.”

The hearing came a day after the FBI released new details about its investigation into the attack, revealing that the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, searched the internet for information about mass shootings, power plants, improvised explosive devices and the attempted assassination of Slovakia’s prime minister in May.

On Monday, the FBI said the Republican presidential candidate had agreed to be interviewed by agents as a crime victim. The agency said last week that the former president had been hit in the ear by a bullet or a fragment. Trump said Monday afternoon that he expected the interview to take place on Thursday.

Most of the questions Tuesday are expected to be directed at Rowe as lawmakers demand answers about how Crooks was able to get so close to Trump. Investigators believe Crooks fired eight shots in Trump’s direction from an AR-style rifle after climbing onto the roof of a building about 147 yards (135 meters) from where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania.

One person attending the rally was killed and two others were wounded. Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.