America First Legal sues DHS, Secret Service for 'concealing records' concerning first Trump assassination attempt

America First Legal (AFL) is suing the US Secret Service (USSS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for release of records relating to the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the “catastrophic failure” of security where Thomas Crooks was able to "fire a relatively simple shot that came within an inch of killing” the GOP nominee.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday, AFL accused the USSS and DHS of " illegally concealing government records related to the first assassination attempt of President Trump in Pennsylvania in July." AFL has requested records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The legal organization said that it has filed multiple FOIA requests and has received nothing in return from USSS and DHS.  

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday; however, the documents under FOIA were requested in July. The delay, much like congressional lawmakers have alleged, appears to be an effort to slow walk information related to the assassination attempt.

"On July 13, the American people watched in horror as a lunatic attempted to assassinate former President, and current candidate for President, Donald Trump," Gene Hamilton, AFL senior counsel said in a statement.

"Today, there is widespread and bipartisan acknowledgment that there were catastrophic failures that tragic day and in the weeks and months ahead of it. We are committed to obtaining these records so that the American people can see for themselves exactly what senior DHS leadership was prioritizing in its mission, and why more resources were not devoted to the protection of President Donald J. Trump," Hamilton added.

Even as a multitude of questions linger about the Butler rally assassination attempt, Trump was again the target of another would-be assassin on Sept. 15 when Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old Democratic activist. Routh had been camping out on the perimeter of the West Palm Beach golf course for 12 hours ahead of time but went unnoticed by the USSS until they saw the barrel of a gun poking through the chain-link fence of the course’s perimeter.

Acting USSS Director Ronald Rowe went to West Palm Beach after Routh’s arrest, later admitting that the USSS had not bothered to search the perimeter of the golf course because a golf game was not on Trump’s “official schedule.”

AFL requested documents pertaining to the Secret Service's staffing shortages, hiring and employment standards and all communications to or from Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and two senior DHS officials, Kristie Canegallo and Jonathan Davidson. According to AFL, the USSS refused to move on its document requests because it wasn’t urgent and constituted "no threat to the life or safety of anyone.”

"Politicians on both sides of the aisle and the American people both agree that USSS and senior officials at DHS are failing to provide well-deserved and well-needed transparency," AFL said in its press release on the lawsuit.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has said that the DHS has been “stonewalling” his subcommittee’s investigation into the assassination attempts. Blumenthal, a senior Democrat senator that does not work closely with Trump, has already said that the subcommittee’s report on the first assassination attempt will “shock” and “appall” Americans.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) recently told Fox News Digital that the USSS has not been cooperative about releasing documents concerning Crooks' autopsy report, saying, "We don't have any of the trajectory reports."