Trump shooter searched details of Lee Harvey Oswald and JFK assassination; flew drone near rally site, FBI director says
(CNN) — Donald Trump’s would-be assassin searched for details of the John F. Kennedy shooting from his laptop and flew a drone in the area near the rally just two hours before the former president took the stage on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.
According to the FBI’s analysis of Thomas Matthew Crooks’ laptop, Crooks searched how far Lee Harvey Oswald was when he shot and killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The search was on July 6, the same day the Trump rally was announced.
“On July 6, he did a Google search for: ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,’” Wray told the House Judiciary Committee.
“That’s a search that’s obviously significant in terms of his state of mind,” the FBI director added. “That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.”
Shooter flew drone just 2 hours before Trump took the stage
Speaking to the House Judiciary Committee, Wray revealed that “around 4 p.m.,” the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, “was flying the drone around the area” of the rally, approximately 200 yards from the stage.
The drone was in the air for approximately 11 minutes, and investigators believe Crooks watched a live feed from the drone on his phone. CNN previously reported that the drone was found in his car following the shooting.
In addition, Crooks had two explosives in his car at the time of the shooting and one in his home, but likely did not have the ability to detonate them from the roof where he was killed, Wray testified.
“It looks like because of the on/off position on the receivers, that if he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof, it would not have worked,” Wray said.
Wray said that investigators have been able to “reverse-engineer the flight path of the drone from the day of the rally,” and now think that the drone footage “would have shown [the shooter] what would have been behind him.”
“It was almost like giving him a rear-view mirror of the scene behind him,” Wray said.
The FBI is investigating the shooting as both an attempted assassination and as a potential act of domestic terrorism. FBI officials have repeatedly asserted that they believe Crooks acted alone, and Wray reiterated that there is no evidence of any co-conspirators.
Gun had a collapsable stock and was purchased from shooter’s father
Investigators say that Crooks fired approximately eight times from an AR-style rifle at the former president before being killed by a US Secret Service counter sniper.
The rifle Crooks used was purchased from his father, Wray testified.
“The weapon that he used for the attempted assassination was an AR-style rifle that was purchased legally, that he – as my understanding – acquired, I think bought actually from his father, who was the one who originally bought it,” Wray said.
Previously, officials said they believed the firearm belonged to Crooks’ father – not the shooter – and they didn’t know how Crooks accessed the weapon.
“I have been saying some time now that we are living in an elevated threat environment,” Wray said. “The shooter may be deceased but the FBI’s investigation is ongoing.”
Investigators have gone through the shooter’s phone and computer, scoured his search history and bedroom and have interviewed his family and friends, but have struggled to identify what motivated the 20-year-old would be assassin to act.
Crooks also had no prior contacts with the FBI, officials say, and had not been previously on their radar or databases.
Shooter was searching for news stories
Wray pushed back against reports that Crooks searched for images of specific prominent public officials online, saying that it appears he was actually searching for news articles.
“The shooter appears to have done a lot of searches of public figures in general, but so far we are seeing kind of news articles and things like that,” Wray said. He continued, “so the images that have been reported about, really what we are talking about there are when you do a news search of an article the image appears in a cache as opposed to like a search for that specific individual.”
The FBI director cautioned that the effort to uncover Crooks’ motive is ongoing, but warned that “it is, quite frankly, a dangerous time to be a prominent public official.”
Wray expects more threats from Iran
Wray said on Wednesday that the FBI informed the US Secret Service about an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump, saying that it’s likely law enforcement agencies are going to see more such “brazenness” from Iran in the future.
The director declined to provide details of “specific, classified information,” to the committee but stressed that his agency has been calling out “efforts by the Iranian government to attempt to retaliate for the killing of (Iranian General) Soleimani by going after current or former prominent US officials.”
“I think we need to recognize the brazenness of the Iranian regime, including right here in the United States, and I expect that we’re going to see more of it and I expect there will be more coming on that,” Wray said.
CNN has previously reported that US authorities obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president, multiple people briefed on the matter told CNN. There’s no indication that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin who attempted to kill the former president, was connected to the plot, the sources said.
Schiff, in swipe at Trump’s felony conviction, praises FBI’s ban on hiring felons
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff pressed Wray on the agency’s hiring standards in an effort to criticize the Republican Party’s decision to make Trump, a convicted felon, its 2024 presidential nominee.
“Do candidates for the FBI have to go through background checks?” Schiff asked, to which Wray said yes.
“Would someone with dozens of felony convictions survive a background check for the bureau?” Schiff said.
“No,” Wray replied.
“So they would never be hired by the bureau?”
“No,” Wray said again.
“Clearly, the bureau has higher standards for their hiring than one of America’s great political parties,” Schiff said.
Trump was convicted earlier this year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush money scheme he orchestrated ahead of the 2016 election.
The House Judiciary Committee hearing is ongoing.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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