News/Commentary

Distrustful lawmakers looking into Trump shooting say House task force ‘politically put together’

August 27, 2024 | | Print Article

A group of House Republicans are running an independent investigation into the Trump assassination plot because they distrust the official congressional investigation/task force and say it’s been politicized.

They say the problem with the official congressional investigation is that Speaker Mike Johnson worked with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in deciding who should serve on the task force.

As a result, the task force is allegedly stocked with a bunch of week-kneed Republicans and Democrats.

Conversely, missing from the task force are the two most hardcore congressional Republicans, former Navy SEAL Eli Crane, a trained sniper, and Cory Mills, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran.

It just so happens these two men are the ones now leading the independent investigation into the Trump assassination plot.

“So myself and Cory Mills are leading a parallel investigation into what happened on J-13th and the assassination attempt,” Crane said last week on the “War Room” podcast, according to the New York Times.

“And we’re doing that because, like many of your listeners, we don’t trust the federal government to actually do the job necessary,” he added.

Crane went on to call Johnson and Jeffries’ decision to not include him and Mills on the official task force “political” and to suggest the task force might try to engage in a cover-up or some sort.

He added that “not only are the witnesses that are called going to be politically selected but what information is released to the public is also going to be political as well.”

In a separate statement to The Hill, Crane accused the official task force of having originally been “put together politically.”

Dovetailing back to the present, this week the official task force toured the Butler, Pennsylvania site where the assassination attempt took place. Meanwhile, as they visited Butler, Crane and Mills’ group held an unofficial assassination forum at the Heritage Foundation’s D.C. office.

Present at the forum was conservative commentator Dan Bongino, in addition to Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Chip Roy, Bob Good, and a Washington regional SWAT operator, Ben Shaffer, who’d been working in Butler the day of the assassination attempt.

Watch the full forum below:

Mills said during the forum that this meet-up “will not be the last.”

“This is a message to all of Congress that if we are not selecting people based on meritocracy, that independent investigations such as this will continue to move forward, that there are members who are conservatives who will not be silenced,” he continued.

Addressing the forum, Bongino said that the Secret Service’s dubious reasoning for previously rejecting former President Donald Trump’s requests for additional security reeks of politics.

“It appears that for the first time in American history, we have a Secret Service that is making decisions that may not be all political, but may have a political tinge to it,” he said.

He also alleged that the Secret Service has become corrupted by diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Meanwhile, “Ben Shaffer — who was in a counter-sniper role the day of the event but said he never had Crooks in his sector of responsibility or his field of vision — talked about communications problems and how lack of drone coverage ‘severely’ impacted the ability to secure the event and venue,” according to The Hill.

Mills previously wished the official task force well.

“I wish the members of Speaker Johnson’s Task Force well, and think it’s time for a parallel independent investigation with subject matter experts (SME) and the whistleblowers who’ve already come forward that myself and Rep. Eli Crane and Benny Johnson have spoken with,” he said in a statement last month.

“I will be speaking with other members, and although I won’t have subpoena powers, I will personally fund whatever is required for additional staff to further investigate and expose the truth,” he added at the time.

The official task force is expected to produce a final report by Dec. 13th. It’s not clear when Crane and Mills’ group will conclude their investigation.

Vivek Saxena
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