More than two weeks after the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump on July 30, 2024, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said the FBI still doesn’t know how the would-be assassin got a rifle onto the roof and fired it from there.
Sen. LaFonza Butler (D-Calif.) asked Abbate whether authorities knew how the 20-year-old would-be assassin got the rifle onto the roof.
Abate Responded“We don’t yet have conclusive evidence as to how he got the rifle there. Based on all the photos, videos and witness statements that have been collected so far, we believe it’s highly likely he had it in his backpack.”
Senator Butler continued, “Did it malfunction in your backpack?”
“We’re still evaluating it. In our lab, we took the rifle itself and measured it against the backpack itself, and if it was in the backpack, the gun would have been visible extending outwards,” Abbate said.
He further stated that no witnesses saw a rifle protruding from the backpack.
“We don’t have conclusive evidence, but it’s possible that he disassembled the rifle, removed it from the bag on the roof just prior to the incident and reassembled it there,” Abbate said. “That’s one of the hypotheses we’re looking at and working on right now.”
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AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the author and curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is a political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the Global Marketing Director for Lone Star Hunts. He was a visiting scholar at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and earned his PhD in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: FollowYou can subscribe to Downrange at breitbart.com/downrange . To contact me directly, please email awrhawkins@breitbart.com
