U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has appointed a bipartisan, independent panel to review the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump that occurred earlier this month, officials announced on Sunday. The panel is tasked with conducting a thorough 45-day independent review of the planning and actions taken by the U.S. Secret Service and state and local authorities before, during, and after the rally, as well as the governing policies and procedures of the U.S. Secret Service.
The Department of Homeland Security stated, “The panel members will have extensive law enforcement and security experience to conduct a 45-day independent review of the planning for and actions taken by the U.S. Secret Service and state and local authorities before, during, and after the rally, and the U.S. Secret Service governing policies and procedures.”
The first individuals named to the panel include former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush; Mark Filip, a former federal judge and deputy attorney general to President George W. Bush; and David Mitchell, former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the state of Delaware.
The statement added that additional experts might be asked to join the group in the coming days. The panel will have 45 days to review the policies and procedures of the Secret Service before, during, and after the rally on July 13 when a gunman fired at Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“We formed this bipartisan group to quickly identify improvements the U.S. Secret Service can implement to enhance their work. We must all work together to ensure events like July 13 do not happen again,” members of the independent panel said in a joint statement.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle will oversee the review. “This will be an impartial panel examining what happened and providing recommendations to ensure an incident like it will never happen again,” Cheatle said in a statement. “The Secret Service is continuing to take steps to review and improve upon our procedures to guarantee the safety of those we protect.”
The Associated Press
