Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., spoke at the end of a hearing Tuesday where U.S. Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe and FBI deputy director Paul Abbate testified on the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Peters directly addressed Rowe and urged him to “commit” to having the Secret Service agents who worked at the campaign rally to testify before the committee as soon as possible. Peters emphasized that their statements would be necessary to clarify contradictions between the information provided by local law enforcement and the Secret Service, respectively.
“Acting director Rowe, some of what you have said today conflicts with information and accounts that we have received from local law enforcement that we’ve had the opportunity to talk with. They have been voluntarily, and I will say expeditiously, cooperating with our bipartisan investigation, which we certainly appreciate, but we now need to speak with Secret Service agents directly who are directly
involved, and I would say that you need to make them available as soon as possible. Those those interviews can’t start weeks from now or months from now. Time is of the essence when memories are fresh, and you can get the information that is most important to us,” Peters said.
“So my question for you as we wrap up this hearing: Acting director Rowe, will you commit to having those agents available for this committee to interview as soon as possible in a matter of days, not weeks, a matter of days?” he concluded.
Rowe answered yes.
The joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Senate Judiciary Committee was the latest to examine what investigators have learned about the shooter who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, as well as the security failures that preceded the deadly shooting.
Rowe, who since 2023 had been serving as deputy director of the Secret Service, was appointed acting director after Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation.
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