WATCH: Secret Service Director Gets GRILLED By House Oversight, Stumbles Over EVERY Question

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle sat for intensive questioning before a congressional committee on Monday as lawmakers sought to understand why the agency failed to prevent the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) homed in on the agency’s decision to not place an agent on top of the roof where 20-year-old Thomas Crooks was able to fire multiple rifle shots at Trump while he stood on a stage approximately 400 yards away. Cheatle had previously defended the lack of placement, saying the slope of the roof would have interfered with a sniper rifleman’s ability to protect the former president.

(VOTE NOW: Should SS Director Cheatle RESIGN Immediately?)

“At any point Saturday, did the Secret Service have an agent on top of that roof?” Comer asked the director.

“Sir, as you can imagine we’re just nine days out from this, uh, incident, and there’s still an ongoing investigation, and so I want to make sure that any information we are providing you is factual,” Cheatle replied. Asked a second time why no agent was placed on the roof, she largely repeated her answer, saying the agency was still looking into the “advanced process” for how it coordinated with local law enforcement to secure the perimeter of the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“Wasn’t that building within the perimeter that should be secured?” Comer continued, which Cheatle disputed. “The building was on the outside of the perimeter during the visit, but again that is one of the things during the investigation we want to take a look at and determine whether or not other decisions should have been made,” she responded.

WATCH:

Other Republican lawmakers have cited whistleblower testimony that the Secret Service diverted resources away from Trump’s rally to bolster the security staff around First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, who was just 33 miles away at an event in Pittsburgh. Cheatle is also expected to answer questions about staffing levels following denials from an agency spokesman that Trump was provided with lower levels of support than requested. However, that revelation came to light on Sunday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the service indeed rebuffed multiple requests from the Trump world over the years to increase his level of official protection.

Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman, was seen stalking the perimeter of the rally hours before it was set to begin but was not confronted, according to previous reports. During the rally, local law enforcement discovered him crawling along the ground with a rangefinder as he searched for a vantage point to take the shot, but by the time further response to the site came Crooks was already gone. The FBI is also investigating why a local police officer backed away from confronting Crooks on the roof literally seconds before he fired the first shot at Trump, narrowly grazing his ear before Secret Service agents tackled him to the ground.

(FREE RED HAT: “Impeached. Arrested. Convicted. Shot. Still Standing”)