One of the House Republicans leading an unauthorized investigation into the assassination of former President Donald Trump accused the bipartisan task force approved by Republican leadership of being “politically assembled.”
The independent body The “J13 Forum,” dubbed the “J13 Forum” in reference to the day of the July assassination attempt, held its first hearing on Monday, focusing on the failure of federal authorities to act quickly in the moments before the shooting. The hearing coincided with the first press conference of the official task force created by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to have sole jurisdiction over the House investigation into the Trump assassination.
Crane underscored the importance of a separate investigation, saying the bipartisan task force was assembled “for political reasons” based on the members selected for the panel. Crane named at least three congressional sharpshooters who were passed over in the panel’s staffing, including himself and Reps. Cory Mills (Republican-Florida) and Morgan Luttrell (Republican-Texas).
Instead, he said, leadership has selected members from across the ideological spectrum, a move he said will have a negative impact on who is brought before the task force to testify.
“That tells you everything you need to know,” Crane said. “So if you assume that, it was politically arranged.”
He said the panel would be reluctant to invite witnesses who “might say things that might cause a stir.”
One example is Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service special agent, who testified before the J13 forum on Monday and openly questioned whether political considerations played a role in the federal agency’s security failures.
Conservative commentator Bongino suggested there may have been some political bias on the part of law enforcement, arguing that an “enhanced security posture” typically afforded to presidential candidates “would have given him a presidential appearance.”
“I think they were concerned with optics and making him a ‘global big shot,'” Bongino said, “and some of those decisions were based purely on elementary school-level political considerations.”
That suspicion proved to be a central theme among lawmakers on the panel, who used the hearing to question whether there might be malicious intent behind the security failures. However, no evidence of malicious intent has yet been presented by either the official House panel or the FBI’s investigation into the shooting.
“The question here is whether this is typical government incompetence or whether you are simply seeing signs of disregard for the duty at hand, whether there is malicious intent at play here,” fiery Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said during the hearing.
The tone of the hearing was partly due to the fact that the members are among the former president’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill. The official task force, which consists of seven Republicans and six Democrats, emphasized bipartisanship and a methodical, slower approach to investigating the assassination.
A spokesman for the official task force did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
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“I don’t know what they’re going to ask, but I hope they’re willing to ask questions that may even seem a little unconventional, because the American people have a lot of unconventional questions,” Crane said of the official panel. “They have questions that are often uncomfortable to ask, but we’re their representatives, so we have to ask them.”
The J13 forum is expected to hold further hearings in the coming months, Mills said on Monday. However, it is not yet clear when the group will present its findings or a final report.
