On July 23, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris testified at the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee about the attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. Paris was open, gave insight into the incident, and gave detailed answers, unlike the testimony of then Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who shortly after her un-testimony resigned. Paris detailed the breakdown in communications, the failure to clearly coordinate responsibilities with each agency, and the lack of effective teamwork that led to the disaster, and nearly worse.
According to his testimony, law enforcement agents were following three suspicious individuals that day, including the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who initially drew attention to himself by wanting to attend the rally, but not wanting to pass through security and enter the venue. Crooks was acting suspiciously and about 30 minutes before the shooting, local police took a photo of him and were circulating the photo among the different agencies. Not seeing any coordinated effort to confront Crooks, several local police left their assigned posts to look for him. A Butler Township police officer was able to climb atop the warehouse roof where he saw Crooks, but within seconds Crooks began to firing. After fatally shooting Crooks, police found eight shell casings near his body.
However, despite the failures, the priority of the top brass at the Secret Service seems to have been more concerned with their public relations image. On July 22 the Secret Service began to advertise on the federal government jobs portal, USAJobs, for two positions for public relations specialists. Their starting pay will be more than double that of a field agent.
