Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday named one of his predecessors, Janet Napolitano, to a bipartisan panel of experts tasked with conducting a 45-day independent review of the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
The panel will also include two security officials from former President George W. Bush’s administration, former Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend and former Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip.
David Mitchell, the former superintendent of Maryland State Police and former public safety chief in Delaware, will also be on the panel. Mayorkas said he may add more experts to the panel in the coming days.
“We are committed to getting to the bottom of what happened on July 13, and I am grateful to the distinguished members of this independent review who will bring decades of expertise in law enforcement and security operations to this important investigation,” Mayorkas said in a statement.
“Ensuring the safety and security of current and former Presidents is critical and one of our Department’s top priorities. The men and women of the Secret Service make it the greatest protective service in the world, with one of the most solemn and difficult missions in government,” Mayorkas continued.
The panel is charged with conducting a 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,” according to a DHS press release.
Mayorkas has asked the panel to provide urgent recommendations to him in real time, rather than waiting for a report at the end of the probe, according to the DHS press release, so that “changes can be quickly implemented if needed.”
“This independent review will examine what happened and provide actionable recommendations to ensure they carry out their no-fail mission most effectively and to prevent something like this from ever happening again,” Mayorkas said in his statement.
Mayorkas also pledged to share the results of the review with the public, echoing President Biden's sentiment when he ordered an independent review of the shooting last week.
“I’ve directed an independent review of the national security at yesterday’s rally to assess exactly what happened and we’ll share the results of that independent review to the American people, as well,” Biden said last Sunday, adding, “We must united as one nation.”
Napolitano has been critical of Trump in public remarks, mocking the former president during an interview in April.
“So, first of all, for former President Trump to run as a so-called law and order candidate, it would be like me saying I play in the NBA. I mean, it just… just doesn’t hold true,” she said on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
The DHS announcement comes after the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally last Saturday shocked the nation and prompted questions about how a gunman was able to open fire from a building relatively close to the stage where Trump was speaking.
The FBI is leading the investigation into the Secret Service response. The DHS statement on Sunday said the independent review “will be conducted in such a way as to not interfere with the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation or any other criminal investigation.”
