House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle to testify next week as part of their investigation into the security around former President Donald Trump after a gunman made an attempt on his life last week at a Pennsylvania rally. 

“The assassination attempt of the former President and current Republican nominee for president represents a total failure of the agency’s core mission and demands Congressional oversight,” Comer wrote in a letter to Cheatle. 

The hearing is scheduled for next Monday, July 22. Cheatle agreed to comply with the subpoena, per an Oversight committee spokesperson.

"Americans demand and deserve answers from the Director about the attempted assassination of President Trump and the Secret Service's egregious failures," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Comer complained in the letter that while the Secret Service initially agreed that Cheatle would attend and that she has spoken to media outlets since the shooting -- which left one rallygoer dead, two others injured and Trump with a wounded ear -- the Department of Homeland Security was now wavering on whether they would allow Cheatle to testify. Cheatle has said she has no plans to resign. 

“Since DHS’s intervention, there have been no meaningful updates or information shared with the Committee,” Comer wrote. “The lack of transparency and failure to cooperate with the Committee on this pressing matter by both DHS and the Secret Service further calls into question your ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitates the attached subpoena compelling your appearance.”

The subpoena was just one of a series of developments that occurred Wednesday in the wake of the assassination attempt on Saturday. Earlier, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would be setting up a task force to investigate security failures that occurred during the assassination attempt. He also said he would be calling on Cheatle to resign from her post as director of the Secret Service, saying on Fox News Channel without elaborating, “I think she’s shown what her priorities are.”

The Louisiana Republican said the task force would be made up of Republicans and Democrats and its formation would speed up the investigative process.

“There’s not a lot of the procedural hurdles, and we’ll have subpoena authority for that task force as well,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he has not received satisfactory answers from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas or leaders at the FBI.

“We must have accountability for this. It was inexcusable,” Johnson said. “Obviously, there were security lapses. You don’t have to be a special ops expert to understand that. And we’re going to get down to the bottom of it quickly.”

The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general also said Wednesday it has opened an investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of security for Trump on the day a gunman tried to assassinate him at his Pennsylvania rally.

In a brief notice posted to the inspector general’s website, the agency said the objective of the probe is to “Evaluate the United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event.”

There was no date given for when the investigation was launched. The notice was among a long list of ongoing cases that the inspector general’s office is pursuing.

Biden already had directed an independent review of the security at the rally.

The shooting has raised questions about how the gunman was able to climb onto a roof with a clear line of sight to the former president, who said he was shot in the ear.

The 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 157 yards of the stage where the Republican former president was speaking when he opened fire. That’s despite a threat on Trump’s life from Iran leading to additional security for the former president in the days before the Saturday rally.

A bloodied Trump was quickly escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents, and agency snipers killed the shooter. Trump said the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. One rallygoer was killed, and two others critically wounded.

Cheatle said her agency was working to understand how Saturday’s shooting happened and to make sure something like it never does again.

The agency of roughly 7,800 staff members is responsible for protecting presidents, vice presidents, their families, former presidents, their spouses and their minor children under the age of 16 and a few other high-level Cabinet officials such as the Homeland Security secretary.