On July 22, the Heritage Oversight Project reported that a cellphone registered to the home and work addresses of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks had visited the Gallery Place building in Washington, D.C., which houses a shopping mall and FBI offices.
The Oversight Project, part of the Heritage Foundation, began investigating the geolocation data hours after the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump at an amusement park in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Crooks, 20, was shot and killed by a Secret Service countersniper after opening fire on Trump and the crowd just after 6:11 pm ET, and experts say a perfectly timed turn of his head was what saved him from instant death by the rifle bullet, which was fired from about 130 yards away.
The shooting killed retired Fire Chief Corey Comperatore of Thurber, Pennsylvania, and seriously injured David Duch of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and James Copenhaver of Moon Township, Pennsylvania.
“We began this investigation the night of the shooting,” an Oversight Project spokesperson told The Blaze News. “We have continued our investigation around the clock ever since.”
Surveillance project leaders said they hoped other experts in the fields of geolocation searching and criminal investigation would help with the investigation, which was sparked by concerns that the FBI, Secret Service and other federal law enforcement agencies were not being transparent or thorough enough.
Washington, DC, “is the only city in America where you can actually be promoted or not fired if you’re really bad at your job.”
Investigators used Crooks’ home and work addresses to locate a cell phone number that was common to both addresses and triangulate the movement of each cell phone. Investigators used commercially available cell phone identification numbers, which are typically used to target advertising to cell phone users.
According to surveillance investigators, a cell phone associated with Crooks’ work address at a nursing home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was moved to the Gallery Place complex in downtown Washington, D.C., on June 26, 2023. The cell phone “rang” from that location seven or eight times that same day.
Gallery Place, an 11-story mixed-use building built above the Chinatown Metro station, is home to retail shops and restaurants but also FBI offices on its upper floors, former FBI special agent Kyle Serafin told Blaze News.
“The closest [location] “As far as I know, the deployment of off-site agents to the Washington Field Office is limited to Washington Field,” Serafin said. “The agents are based at Washington Field, but they work out of Gallery Place.”
Surveillance Project investigators said the cell phone associated with the ID number likely belonged to someone who had visited Crooks at his workplace, but they said they did not believe it was Crooks’ cell phone.
Geolocation technology uses a unique ID assigned to each mobile phone to locate common locations where the phone and its user travel.
“Every device has an advertising ID. It’s like a Social Security number for your phone,” an Oversight Project spokesperson said. “It’s unique and identifies your phone. It can’t be erased. You can update it to get a new ID, but there is only one ID per phone.”
Investigators said they found at least nine devices linked to Crooks’ home and work addresses in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Investigators believe at least two of the devices belonged to Crooks himself. A cell phone was found under Crooks’ body after he was killed by a countersniper on July 13.
Using geolocation data, investigators found a device linked to Crooks that had been moved twice from Bethel Park, just south of Pittsburgh, to Butler, about 55 miles north of Crooks’ home, on July 4 and July 8, 2024, according to the Oversight Project. The phone stopped all activity on July 12.
The gunman also reportedly stopped at a Home Depot in Butler. According to a report by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Crooks bought a 5.5-foot double ladder at the Home Depot just after 9:30 a.m. on the day of the shooting. Investigators do not believe Crooks used the ladder to climb onto the roof just north of the playground.
“When the president wakes up from his nap, he might fire you.”
Investigators believe Crooks was there to scout out the Butler facility ahead of a Trump rally at the Butler Farm Show on July 13.
Another device linked to Crooks was seen traveling by plane from Pittsburgh to Boston’s Logan International Airport on March 1, then to a hotel in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts. The device returned to Pittsburgh on March 4.
The report said a cellphone linked to Crooks visited Allegheny Arms and Gun Works in Bethel Park on Aug. 30, 2023.
The device, linked to Crooks’ home and work addresses, also visited various locations in Bethel Park, including the YMCA, a building housing a karate dojo and laundromat, a garden center, a golf course and a Planet Fitness, the report said.
“We are prepared to cooperate with any legitimate investigation and share further information,” Oversight Project Director Mike Howell wrote to X.
“To protect the whistleblower and our investigation, and given the Congressional Task Force’s ties to the FBI, USSS and other organizations, we will not share any further information with the task force,” Howell wrote.
The Oversight Project’s report will undoubtedly ignite an already intense public debate about how a 20-year-old with little known experience with firearms was able to break into an AGR manufacturing facility north of the fairgrounds, climb onto the roof where the podium stands in perfect view, and fire more than six rifle bullets at the former president before killing him.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) grew increasingly frustrated while questioning Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle during a July 22 hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, yelling, “You’re lying.”Photo: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
Frustrated with the lack of details from the FBI and Secret Service, members of Congress collectively vented their anger at Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle during a congressional hearing on July 22.
Cheatle, who was appointed to the position by President Joe Biden in September 2022, spent much of the four-plus hour hearing shifting the blame to the FBI or saying he simply didn’t have the answers. He faced pointed questioning from Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the aisle. Many of the committee members called for Cheatle’s resignation.
There were several emotional outbursts during the hearing, with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) telling the Secret Service director “you’re lying all the time” after not getting the answers she wanted from Cheatle.
Under questioning from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Cheatle acknowledged he knew how many shell casings were found on the roof of Building 6 near Crooks, but would not reveal that number to Congress. Cheatle repeatedly told committee members they needed to get the answers from the FBI.
“I find this pretty infuriating,” Boebert said, “especially considering you’ve got answers from the FBI and then throughout this hearing you’ve shifted the blame to the FBI, not answering congressional hearings, not answering members of Congress under oath and under subpoena.”
Rep. Russell Frye (R-South Carolina) said Washington, D.C. is “the only city in America where you can actually get promoted or avoid being fired if you’re bad at your job.”
After listing numerous questions that Cheatle had not answered, Frye said, “I join the bipartisan calls on this committee and across the country: You should resign, or the president may have you fired when he wakes up from his nap.”
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