The latest on the Trump assassination attempt investigation – CNN

​ 

CNN investigation breaks down how assassination attempt unfolded minute by minute

04:39

– Source:
CNN

Three days after the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning of the potential for violent “follow-on or retaliatory attacks, the agencies said in a joint statement. Authorities are still searching for a motive and have not identified any co-conspirators.
Trump has continued his campaign efforts amid the ongoing probe. He appeared with a bandage on his ear at the Republican National Convention Monday night, where he formally was nominated as the GOP nominee. Follow live updates about the RNC here.
On Tuesday, he spoke with the family of the man fatally shot in Saturday’s rally in Pennsylvania, sources said. Additionally, Trump and JD Vance will hold their first rally as the presidential and vice presidential nominee in Michigan Saturday.
Elsewhere, 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 him. There is no known link to the shooting.
See a visual timeline of the Trump assassination attempt.

32 Posts

Our live coverage of the investigation into the Trump assassination attempt has ended for the day.

Fareed Zakaria sat down with Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani at Hudson Yards in New York and pressed him on the CNN reporting on an alleged Iranian assassination plot against former President Donald Trump.

The reporting stemmed from US authorities obtaining intelligence on the alleged plot from a human source in recent weeks, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president in recent weeks, multiple people briefed on the matter told CNN.

The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations denied the accusation.

During his interview, Zakaria asked Kani if the plot was in retaliation for the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the senior Iranian general who died in January 2020, which took place during the Trump administration.

“I told you explicitly that we would resort to legal and judicial procedures and frameworks at the domestic level and international level in order to bring the perpetrators and military advisers of General Soleimani’s assassination to justice,” Kani said.

Pressed further if that meant not using violent measures, Kani said, “We will only resort to Iranian and international legal and judicial procedures.”

“Until now, we have done it, and this is our right and of course we will continue it. And the Americans openly said that, that they assassinated the senior Iranian military commander. So it is our natural right in order to follow this issue, and those who are accused in this case, they should be brought to justice in a — in a just court,” Kani said.

Zakaria’s full interview with Kani will air Sunday at 10 a.m. ET on “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

A House Oversight Committee spokesperson said the panel had scheduled a briefing with committee members and the Secret Service Tuesday, but the Department of Homeland Security intervened and “refused to confirm a briefing time.”

The spokesperson also said the committee will issue a subpoena for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to appear at the panel’s hearing on July 22 “to head off any attempt by DHS to backtrack on her appearance” even though the spokesperson said the Secret Service had confirmed Cheatle’s appearance.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told CNN in a statement: “DHS responds to congressional requests directly via official channels, and the Department will continue to respond appropriately to Congressional oversight.”

The shooter who opened fire at a Donald Trump rally on Saturday told his boss he needed that day off because he had “something to do,” according to multiple law enforcement officials.

Thomas Matthew Crooks told his coworkers he would be back to work on Sunday.

By 3 p.m. on Saturday, Thomas Matthew Crooks was at the security screening area for the Trump rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. He first aroused suspicion when he passed through the magnetometers carrying a rangefinder, which looks similar to a small pair of binoculars and is used by hunters and target shooters to measure distances when setting up a long-range shot, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

The rangefinder would not have prevented Crooks from getting through the security screening point, but it did attract the attention of security personnel who kept an eye on him until he left the secure area.

Investigators are unsure of where Crooks went after he left the screening area but the working theory is that he went to his car to retrieve the rifle.

Around the same time witnesses alerted police that Crooks was crawling on the roof, one of the four counter-sniper teams observed Crooks looking at their position through the rangefinder, according to the senior law enforcement official.

“They were looking at him while he was looking at them,” the official said.

Crooks gained access to that rooftop by climbing on top of the building’s air conditioning system and hoisting himself up, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

After the shooting, multiple law enforcement sources said investigators found a bulletproof vest, three fully-loaded magazines and two remote-controlled explosive devices in Crooks’ car. Investigators are uncertain as to whether Crooks had a plan to use the body armor, nearly 100 rounds of additional ammunition from those loaded magazines, and two remote-controlled bombs, had he escaped after the shooting.

Additionally, after a search of his residence, investigators discovered another bulletproof vest, another remote-controlled explosive device and a 3D printer, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

After the shooting, multiple law enforcement sources say investigators found a bulletproof vest, three fully-loaded magazines, and two remote-controlled explosive devices in Thomas Matthew Crooks’ car.

Investigators are uncertain as to whether Crooks had a plan to use the body armor, nearly 100 rounds of additional ammunition from those loaded magazines, and two remote-controlled bombs, had he escaped after the shooting.

Additionally, after a search of his residence, investigators discovered another bulletproof vest, another remote-controlled explosive device, and a 3D printer, according to multiple law enforcement sources. 

By 3 p.m. on Saturday, Thomas Matthew Crooks was at the security screening area for the Donald Trump rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

He first aroused suspicion when he passed through the magnetometers carrying a rangefinder, which looks similar to a small pair of binoculars and is used by hunters and target shooters to measure distances when setting up a long-range shot, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The rangefinder would not have prevented Crooks from getting through the security screening point, but it did attract the attention of security personnel who kept an eye on him until he left the secure area.

Investigators are unsure of where Crooks went after he left the screening area but the working theory is that he went to his car to retrieve the rifle. 

Around the same time witnesses alerted police that Crooks was crawling on the roof, one of the four counter-sniper teams observed Crooks looking at their position through the rangefinder, according to the senior law enforcement official.

“They were looking at him while he was looking at them,” the official said.

Crooks gained access to that rooftop by climbing on top of the building’s air conditioning system and hoisting himself up, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

There will be an all-senators phone briefing Wednesday to discuss the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office.

The unclassified phone briefing will include briefers from the Justice Department, Secret Service, and the FBI, Schumer’s office said.

It’s set for 3 p.m. ET Wednesday.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are concerned about the potential for violent “follow-on or retaliatory attacks” in response to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the agencies said in a joint intelligence bulletin obtained by CNN.

“Individuals in some online communities” have threatened or encouraged violence in response to attempted assassination, the FBI and DHS said in the bulletin, which was dated July 15 and distributed to federal, state and local officials.The attempted assassination of Trump “reinforces our assessment that election-related targets are under a heightened threat” of attack or disruption, the documents states.

National security and law enforcement officials have been on edge since Saturday, when a gunman identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks fired at Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, striking the former president in the ear and killing one spectator and critically injuring two others.

The new intelligence bulletin does not identify a specific or credible threat of an attack. However, the document says: “We cannot rule out the possibility” that some domestic violent extremists or other people may attempt follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence in response to the attempted assassination of Trump.

CNN has requested comment from the FBI and DHS on the bulletin. Such threat assessments are routine in the aftermath of major security incidents.

Politico first reported on the bulletin.

Read more on the FBI and DHS warning.

Former President Donald Trump and his new running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will hold a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET inside the Van Andel arena, according to a statement from the Trump-Vance campaign.

The event will be Trump and Vance’s first rally after officially becoming the presidential and vice presidential nominees for the 2024 election at the Republican National Convention.

Former President Donald Trump has spoken with the Comperatore family, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Corey Comperatore was shot and killed during the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday.

In an interview with the New York Post on Monday, Helen Comperatore shared her husband’s last words, spoken as he shielded his family from bullets that ultimately took his life.

“He’s my hero,” Helen Comperatore said. “He just said, ‘Get down!’ That was the last thing he said.”

The Butler County District Attorney, who oversees the county emergency service unit (ESU), told CNN his team was not supposed to guard outside during the rally where Donald Trump was shot, adding to the finger-pointing between the Secret Service and local law enforcement since Saturday.

The Butler County ESU – which is made up of officers from 23 municipalities – was on site at the Trump rally.

“We didn’t have anyone assigned to be outside in that perimeter, as far as what I was told,” Butler County District Attorney Ronald Goldinger said. “Our team was not responsible for that.”

“The hierarchy was Secret Service was in charge,” Goldinger said. “Ultimately, they’ve got to make sure that everything is being done correctly. So they want to point fingers at other people, that would be like me pointing a finger at one of my employees and saying ‘this is your fault’ and making them take the blame. I mean, the buck stops at the top.”

Investigators are not any closer to finding out the motive of the shooter who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, according to a law enforcement official.

They’ve looked through Thomas Matthew Crooks cell phone and are still sifting through his laptop and so far have not found anything, the official said. Investigators are also combing through a USB drive that belonged to the shooter but have not yet found any clues, the official said.

The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations denied there is an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump.  

“These accusations are unsubstantiated and malicious. From the perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law for ordering the assassination of General Soleimani. Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice,” a spokesperson for the mission told CNN.

Read more from CNN’s exclusive report here.

President Joe Biden received an updated homeland security briefing Tuesday morning from National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall, the White House says.

Biden — who’s in the midst of a three-day swing in Las Vegas that’ll see him continue outreach to Black and Latino voters — was joined by Jeff Zients, White House chief of staff, Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, Bruce Reed, deputy chief of staff and Annie Tomasini, deputy chief of staff.

In an interview with NBC Monday, Biden said he feels safe under Secret Service protection and highlighted that the Secret Service “risked their lives” to protect fellow Secret Service protectee Donald Trump during Saturday’s assassination attempt.

“They were ready to give their lives to the president. The question is should they have anticipated what happened? Should they have done what they needed to do to prevent thisfrom happening? That’s a question – that’s an open question,” he added.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on Tuesday that there’s no known link between Donald Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks and anyone else at the moment.

“The investigation of Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Trump is active and ongoing. At this time, law enforcement has reported that their investigation has not identified ties between the shooter and any accomplice or co-conspirator, foreign or domestic,” Watson said.

Investigators are still searching for a motive behind the attempted assassination. Their probe has included gaining access to Crooks’ cell phone and interviewing his family and friends.

US authorities obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Donald Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president in recent weeks, 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 on Saturday, was connected to the plot, the sources said.

But the existence of the intelligence threat from a hostile foreign intelligence agency — and the enhanced security for Trump — raises new questions about the security lapses at the Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and how a 20-year-old man managed to access a nearby rooftop to fire shots that injured the former president.

Iran has repeatedly vowed revenge for the US military’s killing of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian military’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in January 2020. And former senior Trump administration officials who worked on national security have had tight security since leaving the government.

Read more from CNN’s exclusive report here.

Watch:

bf65f9c2-5c8c-4048-abe6-c7d40374f5a3.mp4

05:36

– Source:
cnn

Top Trump adviser Chris LaCivita said Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is “doing great” following the Saturday assassination attempt. The campaign is currently undergoing a security assessment and is planning on conducting a “training class” for staff in the coming weeks, he said.

“We basically told everybody stay home for the next two days, work from home, we’re going through a security assessment now, which obviously for reasons I won’t go into, but just keep an eye on hardening different things and making sure that people are aware,” LaCivita said at an event hosted at the GOP convention in Milwaukee. “We’ll do like a training class in the weeks ahead.”

“We’ll, you know, basically teach people and give them a better understanding of their surroundings and that kind of thing,” he continued.

“Definitely outside the realm of political strategy but nonetheless in terms of running a massive, you know, multi-million dollar operation which the Trump campaign is and the Republican National Committee is, these are those things that happen, at least in terms of looking out for employees.”

The House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday invited the heads of the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and Secret Service to appear for a hearing on July 23 on the Donald Trump assassination attempt.

“The American people want answers on what happened Saturday in Pennsylvania. Secretary (Alejandro) Mayorkas and Director (Kimberly) Cheatle are responsible for the department and the agency charged with securing our homeland and protecting our nation’s chief executives and candidates, while Director (Christopher) Wray leads the agency with the vital responsibility of investigating this attempted assassination,” Rep. Mark Green, committee chair, said in a statement released about the hearing.

Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service, said that the “bucks stops with me” in an interview with ABC News when pressed about who was most responsible for security failures that led to the assassination attempt of Donald Trump on Saturday.

Cheatle was also pressed on why the shooter was able to get onto a rooftop of a building in the sightline of the stage or why law enforcement wasn’t on that rooftop.

She went on to say that the shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion and that “units started responding to seek that individual out. Unfortunately with the rapid succession of how things unfolded by the time that individual was located, they were on the rooftop and we able to fire off at the former president.”

Asked if the rooftop should have been secured, Cheatle said that the particular rooftop was sloped at its highest point and that there was a safety factor considered in terms of putting an agent there.

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at it’s highest point and so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof and so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from the inside,” Cheatle said.

Attendees in the crowd noticed the gunman on the roof of a nearby building nearly two minutes before the shots were fired during the attempted assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, according to a CNN analysis of witness video and the official video feed of Trump’s speech.

CNN synced witness footage and the official video feed of Trump’s rally to give a minute-by-minute account of the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In one video, Trump is speaking about President Joe Biden’s job performance, and then a person in the footage says, “look, they’re all pointing.”

One minute and 57 seconds later, gunfire is heard.

CNN has synced eyewitness footage and the official video feed of Donald Trump’s rally to give a minute-by-minute account of the former president and GOP nominee’s attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania.

d2215686-fffa-4f70-9384-bcae91996ea9.mp4

04:39

– Source:
cnn

Dozens of major CEOs, including the leaders of IBM, Goldman Sachs and Pfizer, condemned political violence in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. 

In a statement Monday evening, the business leaders called the Trump shooting “reprehensible” and expressed hope the incident will be a “wake-up call for all Americans.”

“We call upon fellow Americans to reject violence in all its forms and to uphold basic standards of civility and respect for our differences in the political arena and beyond,” the business leaders said in the statement released by the Partnership for New York City, which represents the city’s business leaders and leading employers.

The statement was signed by 170 business leaders, including Citi CEO Jane Fraser, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. Other notable business leaders signing the statement include Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.

“We express profound sympathy for all the innocent victims of this tragedy,” the business leaders said.

The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump – the worst security failure by the US Secret Service in four decades – has pitted the agency against local law enforcement as both say the other was responsible for securing the building where the gunman perched.

The public discrepancy is a significant departure from a normally close and successful relationship between the Secret Service and local police and could lead to an erosion of trust that further stresses security operations.

The Secret Service is responsible for a long list of protectees and occasional foreign dignitaries. It handles thousands of trips requiring protection, a massive burden that demands assistance from local law enforcement.

In an interview with ABC News on Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said local police were inside the building at the time of the shooting, and that it was their role to secure the building roughly 120 to 150 meters away yet outside the hard perimeter and with a line of sight to the rally stage.

“There was local police in that building – there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building,” Cheatle said.

A source familiar with the investigation told CNN that snipers were stationed inside the building. The local sniper team, which hailed from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, was located on the second floor providing overwatch of the crowd at the rally, the source said.

Read the full story.

Snipers were stationed inside the building where a gunman climbed the roof and attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the investigation tells CNN.

The source said the local sniper team hailed from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit. 

The team, according to the source, was located on the second floor providing overwatch of the crowd at the rally.

Donald Trump has gone from an insurrection to a resurrection.

The searing picture of a nation in dystopian decline that defines the ex-president’s politics was largely missing on the first night of the Republican National Convention.

In its place was a sense of the divine — a pulsating belief in miracles among thousands of Republican delegates and a feeling that God spared their hero after he was nearly killed in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Thousands of Trump supporters in Milwaukee on Monday night hailed their leader, elevating him from MAGA superhero to saint-like status.

Trump, a white bandage over his wounded right ear, stood below the stands of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA arena. He didn’t speak to the crowd, but mouthed “thank you” over and over again.

Usually, Trump’s face projects anger or rage or sarcasm. But on Monday night, it wore unusual emotion. It looked as if tears welled in Trump’s eyes. A man who normally projects strength and seeks to dominant every room he enters betrayed a trace of wistfulness and vulnerability, as might befit someone coming to terms with their life being saved by a stroke of luck and a turn of the head.

Trump’s supporters have long seen him as a God-like figure and his own campaign has played into the trope with advertising. He’s styled himself as the secular prophet who leads a populist movement.

For Trump’s millions of American fans, Monday night was a validation of their faith in God and the ex-president and the righteousness of his mission.

Read the full analysis.

Drones are used today by everything from small rural police departments with a handful of members to major federal law enforcement agencies. But they weren’t in the sky over the former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania when a gunman shot him and three other attendees from a nearby rooftop.

Some officials want to know why.

“What happened here? I think pretty clearly there was a security lapse, at least. And we need to find out, for example, why were drones not used in the area?” House Speaker Mike Johnson asked on CNN on Sunday evening. “I have not gotten a satisfactory answer on that yet. That seems pretty obvious that you would do that so you could see people on rooftops.”

Experts in the field say that drones are becoming a common tool by law enforcement, even when not doing threat assessment. They can be used for things as simple as traffic control at large scale events, or to help emergency personnel reach people who are having standard medical problems.

Aerial surveillance is much easier with the advances in drones, said Matt Sloane, CEO of a drone firm Skyfire. His company has trained law enforcement agencies from large to small, including the Secret Service, in the use of drones, as well as provided the service itself.

Sloane said his firm has provided drone surveillance for private security firms working at rallies of presidential candidates who are not yet covered by the Secret Service, as well as at major events, such as Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta in February 2019. His service costs about $5,000 per drone per event.

“I’m not accusing Secret Service or any agency of doing something wrong,” he said about the lack of drones at the rally Saturday. “This is newer technology, and the Secret Service has been doing things a certain way successfully for a long time. But there are things out there that can help and are worth considering.”

The Secret Service has thus far declined to answer questions about the lack of drone surveillance and its other decisions on the protection provided at Saturday’s rally.

President Joe Biden sat down with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday in his first interview since the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Biden grateful Trump’s OK but slams his rhetoric

He mentioned Trump’s comments after the rally of White supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 — when Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” — and the former president’s denial of the 2020 election that led to the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.

Biden declines to speculate on shooting’s impact on election

He said he is more focused on Trump’s health and safety at this time.

President admits his “bullseye” comment was a mistake

During a July 8 call with donors, Biden said: “It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye,” according to a summary of the call provided by his campaign.

“It was a mistake to use the word,” Biden said.

“I meant to focus on him. Focus on what he’s doing. Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told at the debate,” he said.

Biden feels safe with the Secret Service

He said the agency continued to have his “full confidence” and it was an “open question” whether the Secret Service should have anticipated the shooting.

JD Vance is no surprise as Trump’s VP pick

Biden pointed out the staunchly anti-Trump views Vance held before he became a senator: “If you go back and listen to some of the things JD Vance said about Trump…,” Biden said, laughing as he trailed off.

Read the full story.

Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, called for a “full-scale investigation” into the assassination attempt against the former president. 

“We need to understand what happened because clearly mistakes were made,” Vance told Fox News. “The Secret Service ran up there. They put their bodies over, and they reacted quickly. That’s not what worries me. What worries me is why was there a shooter 150 yards from the president of the United States?”

When the assassination attempt occurred Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, Vance said he was playing mini golf with his kids. 

“My first reaction was just to pray for him. I was terrified if President Trump had been killed, of course, terrible, terrible, terrible. But the reverberations in the country it would have been a world historic tragedy. Thank God he was OK,” Vance said.

“I don’t know enough about the security protocols, but I was a United States Marine. And 150 yards is not nearly enough of a security perimeter,” Vance said.

Vance did not, however, repeat his claim that the Biden campaign’s rhetoric “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” which he shared in a post on X shortly following the shooting. 

Monday night, Vance accused the “state-run media” of blaming Trump for his rhetoric. 

Offering insight into how he would step into the role of vice president, Vance said the most important thing is to “support the president in enacting the agenda.” He said the same should be true for Republicans on Capitol Hill. 

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Monday “the buck stops with me” as questions have swirled about the agency’s security preparations following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump Saturday.

Cheatle told ABC News on Monday that “the Secret Service is responsible for the protection of the former president” and “the buck stops with me, I am the director of the Secret Service.” She says she plans to stay on as director.

The director said the shooting “was unacceptable,” adding, “This is an event that never should have happened.”

When asked what her initial reaction was to the failed attempt on Trump’s life, Cheatle said: “Shock and then concern, obviously, for the former president.”

In her first public comment since the Trump assassination attempt, Cheatle said in a statement earlier Monday the agency will “participate fully” in an independent review ordered by President Joe Biden and will work with Congress on “any oversight action.”

Cheatle, who was appointed by Biden in 2022, expressed confidence in the agency’s security plan for this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and said changes have been made to Trump’s security detail since Saturday.

“The Secret Service is tasked with the tremendous responsibility of protecting the current and former leaders of our democracy,” Cheatle said. “It is a responsibility that I take incredibly seriously, and I am committed to fulfilling that mission.”

House Oversight Committee Republicans sent a letter to Cheatle with a new series of document requests and a notice to preserve all documents and communications regarding Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally, as the committee separately investigates the assassination attempt.

CNN’s Annie Grayer and Whitney Wild contributed reporting to this post.

In the 48 hours before he opened fire on former President Donald Trump, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks made a series of stops in and around his suburban Pittsburgh hometown.

On Friday, he went to a shooting range where he was a member, and practiced firing, a law enforcement official told CNN. The next morning, Crooks went to a Home Depot, where he bought a five-foot ladder, and a gun store, where he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition, the official said.

Then, Crooks drove his Hyundai Sonata about an hour north, joining thousands of people from around the region who flocked to Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He parked the car outside the rally, with an improvised explosive device hidden in the trunk that was wired to a transmitter he carried, the official said. Then, investigators believe, he used his newly-bought ladder to scale a nearby building, and opened fire on the former president.

As investigators continue to search for a motive behind the attempted assassination, they are scrutinizing Crooks’ movements before the attack and trying to piece together a timeline of his actions leading up to it.

Yet nearly 48 hours after the shooting, investigators are struck by the lack of leads they’re finding about Crooks’ mindset and possible motives. Even after successfully breaking into his phone and searching his computer, scouring his search history and bedroom, and interviewing his family and friends, agents still haven’t found evidence that would suggest political or ideological impetus for the shooting, law enforcement sources told CNN.

Read more about gunman’s movements before the attack.

The FBI has gained access to the phone of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Trump rally shooter, the bureau said in a statement Monday. 

The bureau is analyzing Crooks’ electronic devices and has searched his home and car, the FBI said. Investigators have also conducted “nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses. That work continues.” 

The investigative steps are part of the FBI’s initial investigation of the Saturday shooting at a Trump rally, which it is investigating as an assignation attempt on former President Donald Trump and potential domestic terrorism.

Authorities have previously said they believe that Crooks acted alone and that they have not yet been able to identify a motive for the shooting. 

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will receive US Secret Service protection at President Joe Biden’s direction, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Monday.

“In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy, Jr.,” Mayorkas said at a White House news briefing.

Kennedy thanked Biden for the decision, as well as the private security firm that he has hired for personal protection and to secure campaign events, in a post on X.

Former President Donald Trump had called for Kennedy to receive Secret Service protection in the aftermath of Saturday’s assassination attempt.

“In light of what is going on in the world today, I believe it is imperative that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. receive Secret Service protection — immediately. Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, were both assassinated.

 

Scroll to Top