Rep. Cohen under fire for proposed Trump Secret Service protection bill. What would it do?

Former President Donald Trump was shot during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. The bullet grazed the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

The shooting killed one person, Corey Comperatore, and critically injured two others. The suspected shooter was also killed.

Federal Bureau of Investigations later identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as the shooter.

In light of the shooting, many are pointing fingers at the Secret Service, which provides security detail to both current and former presidents in addition to their families. Reporting later revealed that the Secret Service apparently failed to sweep the building where the shooter was positioned.

Focus has also turned to a proposed piece of legislation in the House Judiciary Committee related to Secret Service protection and the members of Congress who have supported it, including Rep. Steve Cohen. Since the shooting, many have called for Cohen, among others, to resign. The congressman has also faced threats online because of the bill.

The bill was introduced on the U.S. House of Representatives floor in April and, if passed, could remove Secret Service detail from former presidents who are sentenced to a year or more in prison following a felony conviction.

Many are calling for the eight members of Congress who co-sponsored the piece of legislation to resign or to pull the bill, erroneously citing that if the bill were to have passed prior to the shooting, Secret Service detail would not have been present.

Cohen has faced calls from Trump supporters and other elected officials to resign, including some other members of Congress.

What did the bill say?

The bill, which was introduced by Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Democrat, would only remove the specialized detail if a former president were to be convicted of a felony and sentenced to a year in prison.

Politicians in Mississippi have called for Thompson to resign over the bill, in addition to a post his staffer made regarding the shooting.

Trump has been convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in May. He has yet to be sentenced.

If the bill passes, Trump would only lose his security detail if he is sentenced to a year, or more, in prison. Because he has not yet been sentenced, the bill would have had no impact on whether the Secret Service would have been present, or not, during Saturday's shooting.

The bill was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary in April, and no action has happened since.

Cohen, one of the eight co-sponsors of the bill, did not respond to a request for comment for this story. He did post on X clarifying to a user that the bill was not to remove the federal security detail from Trump immediately.

"Bill was about possibility of Trump being incarcerated and secret service being in prison. Not anti Trump but clarification of a unique possibility re:: Secret service," Cohen wrote in the post.

How will this impact Trump?

That is still to be determined as Trump has not been sentenced for his felony convictions yet. His sentencing hearing was previously scheduled for July 11, days before the Republican National Convention.

After a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity declaring that Trump is at least partially immune from crimes he committed while in office, Judge Juan Merchan rescheduled the sentencing. Merchan did this to allow for both the prosecution and defense attorney teams to present arguments over the ruling and if the felonies can stand in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

The new sentencing date is now Sept. 18.

The bill, if passed, would remove security detail from Trump if he is sentenced to more than a year in prison.

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What is the Secret Service?

According to the Secret Service website, the agency is a federal law enforcement agency that "protects the safety and security of the U.S. and its leaders, and investigates crimes against the U.S. financial system."

The Secret Service is responsible for protecting the president, vice president and their immediate family members. They are also responsible for protecting former presidents, visiting foreign dignitaries and other designated individuals.

Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at brooke.muckerman@commercialappeal.com and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter @brookemuckerman.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Bill that could remove Trump's Secret Service protection: What to know