Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana slammed the FBI for releasing the body of attempted Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to his family for cremation days after the shooting, saying it was “alarming” that the bureau was obstructing further investigation.
Republican congressmen said they had requested an examination of Crooks’ body when they visited the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, to investigate the shooting and had learned it had been released to the family.
“My attempt to examine Crooks’ body on Monday, August 5th caused quite a stir and revealed disturbing facts…The FBI released the body for cremation ten days later (July 13th).” Higgins He wrote in a July 13 report to the Task Force, a bipartisan committee formed to investigate security failings surrounding the shooting.
“Crooks was missing from J23. No one knew about this until Monday, August 5th, including the county coroner, police and sheriff.”
Higgins described the FBI’s actions as “obstructing subsequent investigative efforts.”
Higgins argued that while the body was under the jurisdiction of the Butler County Coroner, the coroner “would never have released Mr. Crooks’ body to his family for cremation or burial without specific permission from the FBI.”
The four-term congressman said he wants the body examined to know 100 percent whether the coroner’s report and autopsy findings were accurate.
“The reality is, we’ll never know. Sure, we’ll have reports and photos and so on, but I’ll never be able to say for sure that those reports and photos are accurate based on my own examination of the body,” he added.
Higgins revealed “shocking facts” about Crooks’ body and sharply criticised the FBI’s handling of the crime scene, saying investigators released it after three days.
“The FBI removed biological evidence from the crime scene, which is unprecedented,” Higgins wrote. “No police department would ever do that.”
“I interviewed several emergency responders and they expressed a full range of feelings, from surprise to disappointment to skepticism, about the FBI releasing the scene so quickly after J13,” Higgins said.
“It should be noted that the FBI was fully aware of the fact that Congress would be investigating J13. The FBI does not exist in a vacuum. They would have known that releasing the J13 crime scene would adversely affect their immediate observations of the ensuing investigation.”
Higgins concluded that the 20-year-old shooter was “perfectly positioned (on the roof) to minimise the threat of return fire from the ground or from a U.S. Secret Service counter-sniper team”.
“Crooks has effectively minimized the outline of the head and upper body against the sky,” he writes.
Higgins said Crooks fired eight shots before Butler Special Forces officers returned fire, apparently damaging the buffer tube of Crooks’ AR.
“The tenth (and likely final) shot was fired by the USSS Southern Counter Sniper Unit,” the report states. “My investigation indicates that the shot entered the area of the left mouth and exited the area of the right ear.”
Crooks’ bullets struck three protesters, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, and critically wounding David Duch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.
One of the bullets grazed Trump’s right ear, leaving the 45th president bleeding before he was secured by Secret Service agents.
