Enjoy and stay connected to your network with our Spectrum News app. Learn More
Testifying before Congress on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray shared new details about the criminal investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Wray showed the House Judiciary Committee that investigators recovered a drone from the vehicle of the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. It appears that the shooter flew the drone for 11 minutes, about two and a half hours before opening fire on Trump at his crusade rally in Butler. The drone did not fly over the level where the Republican presidential nominee would later stand, but was about two hundred yards away, the FBI director said.
The drone recorded video, but experts assume the shooter saw a live feed from his camera, Wray said.
On July 13, Crooks fired several shots at Trump while he was perched on the roof of a nearby warehouse, hitting the former president in the right ear. One player in the demonstration died and two others were injured. The shooter fatally shot through a Secret Service. sniper.
“The attempted assassination of the former president is an attack on our democracy and the democratic process, and we will not tolerate or tolerate any political violence, especially a despicable narrative of this magnitude,” Wray said in his opening statement. Assure you and the rest of Americans that the people at the FBI will continue to work tirelessly to shed light on what happened.
“There are many paintings being made now and many more to be done, and our information about what happened and why will continue to evolve, but we are not leaving anything to chance. “
Wray said the shooter had “focused a lot” on Trump and the rally a week before the shooting and that investigation of a computer connected to him revealed that on July 6 he searched online for “How far away is Oswald from Kennedy?The would-be killer signed up to attend the rally the same day, Wray said.
The shooter visited the rally site at least three times, according to Wray: a week before for about 20 minutes, on the morning of the rally for about 70 minutes, and finally in the afternoon for the event.
Wray said the FBI lab also examined three explosive devices the shooter had: two in his vehicle and one in his home.
The FBI director described the devices as “relatively crude” but added that they “had the ability to detonate remotely. ” The shooter had a transmitter when he was killed, but it appears that if he had attempted to detonate the devices from the roof where he was located “it wouldn’t have worked,” Wray said.
Wray said investigators are still working to learn more about the shooter’s mindset, motivations and ideology.
The FBI director said investigators were able to read about several of the shooter’s electronic devices, but not all. They will have to download a legal authorization to read about some, while encryption disruptions in others have frustrated officials so far, he added.
“We have information,” Wray said. “Some places we were going to visit. Some positions we can look at. Some positions we may never see.
Wray said that based on the shooter’s online search history, it’s “pretty clear” that he was “interested in public figures” in general.
The FBI director added that descriptions from others who knew him that Crooks was a “loner” seemed to fit what investigators learned from his devices. Their contact list was short and gave the impression of having limited interactions, face-to-face or electronically, with other people, Wray said.
Wray also said he has seen no evidence that the shooter had accomplices or co-conspirators, but that the FBI is proceeding to look into that possibility.
Eight bullets from the shooter’s semi-automatic rifle were recovered from the ceiling, Wray said.
Several investigations have been opened into this attempted murder. In addition to the FBI investigation, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is in the Service’s procedure to protect Trump at the rally and the preparation of the counter-sniper team. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also appointed an independent bipartisan panel of security and law enforcement experts to analyze how the shooting may have occurred.
Among them, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. , and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N. Y. , announced Tuesday that they will launch a task force of seven Republicans and six Democrats to investigate.
And Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned as director of the Secret Service on Tuesday, told lawmakers Monday that the firm was conducting an internal investigation into “mission assurance. “