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NATCHEZ — After the recent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson denies that his bill which calls for the removal of United States Secret Service protection from certain felons would have had any effect on what happened to Trump.

Thompson has been the subject of Republican scrutiny since the Saturday incident for his sponsorship of H.R. 8081, also known as the “Disgraced Former Protectees Act,” that was introduced in the House of Representatives on April 19 amid Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York.

The bill text states it would terminate protection “for any person upon sentencing following conviction for a Federal or State offense that is punishable for a term of imprisonment of at least one year.”

“My bill would not have affected the Secret Service’s presence during this tragic event,” Thompson wrote in a statement Monday afternoon. “It aims to clarify lines of authority when a protectee is sentenced to prison and is in the custody of another law enforcement agency. That does not apply to the former President.”

Thompson, a Democrat, represents Mississippi’s Second District in the U.S. House of Representatives and is the former chairman of the House Jan. 6 Select Committee.

Thompson’s staff further said that the bill, if it had already passed, would not have affected the Secret Service’s presence at the rally where Trump was shot on Saturday because he was not already sentenced at the time and it is therefore “not applicable.”

Thompson also issued a statement on X shortly after Trump was injured in the shooting Saturday during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“There is no room in American democracy for political violence. I am grateful for law enforcement’s fast response to this incident. I am glad the former President is safe, and my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved,” Thompson wrote.