Overview
- Josefine Paul told the North Rhine-Westphalia committee she should have communicated sooner after the attack, saying she received a text from Interior Minister Herbert Reul on Sunday and that earlier outreach and a Monday briefing would have been preferable.
- Paul, who was on an official trip to Maillé, France, said no ministries tried to reach her on the Friday or Saturday and argued she was not the responsible security minister when asked why she did not visit the operations center.
- State Secretary Lorenz Bahr faced credibility questions after messages suggested he had informed Paul earlier than connection data indicate, and the committee demanded call data from his private landline after gaps appeared in mobile records.
- Opposition lawmakers called for Bahr's resignation and pressed the government over incomplete files, a dispute that has already triggered proceedings before the state constitutional court in Münster.
- Bahr rejected claims of witness coaching by a ministry-provided lawyer even as the panel continued probing failed Dublin transfers in the attacker’s case, with further testimony planned from senior officials including Reul and Minister-President Hendrik Wüst this year.