Former President Donald Trump has agreed to allow the FBI to interview him in connection with an assassination attempt earlier this month, the FBI said Monday.
Victim interviews are a typical and optional aspect of FBI investigative procedures.
“We want to hear his version of what he observed,” Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters Monday.
“The interview with the former president will be consistent with the interviews we conduct with other victims,” Rojek explained. CNN.
The FBI is working diligently to determine Thomas Matthew Crooks’ motive for attempting to assassinate the 45th president during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
“While the FBI investigation may not yet have determined a motive, we believe the suspect went to great lengths to conceal his actions,” Rojek added. “Furthermore, we believe his actions indicate careful planning in advance of the campaign rally.”
Rojek said Crooks had been investigating previous mass shootings and other assassination attempts and appeared to have mainly limited his social circle to close family members.
“We believe he had very few friends or acquaintances throughout his life,” Rojek said.
Authorities previously said Crooks had tried to determine “how far Oswald had been from Kennedy” before the shooting, and described Oswald as “highly intelligent.”
In the end, the 20-year-old would-be assassin took up position on the roof of a shed about 130 yards from President Trump and opened fire.
Police fired multiple shots, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, severely wounding two others, David Duch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, and leaving Trump with a cut on his ear.
A countersniper shot and killed Crooks shortly thereafter, and both Dutch and Copenhaver were subsequently released from the hospital.
Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray caused controversy when he told the House Judiciary Committee that his former boss may not have been hit by a bullet, saying, “I question whether it was a bullet or shrapnel.”
this is Backlash from Trump He noted that the FBI “never checked.”
The FBI released a statement late Friday.
“The bullet that struck former President Trump in the ear was either a whole bullet or a fragmented bullet fired from a deceased individual’s rifle,” the FBI said in a statement.
Trump wore a bandage on his right ear for nearly two weeks before removing it.
The 78-year-old former president is now scheduled to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, for the rally, but only after the Secret Service said it has security in place.
