FBI officials met with former President Trump last week to paint an increasingly complex portrait of Republican candidate Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who shot the president.
Federal agents informed Trump on August 1 of new information they had discovered about people who had plotted to assassinate him since the July 13 shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The FBI said at the meeting that they believed Crooks was “incredibly intelligent” but likely had an undiagnosed disability.
The 20-year-old scored more than 1,500 on the SAT, the college entrance exam. The average score in the U.S. is 1,050, according to the College Entrance Examination Board.
Enraged police officers claim they ordered Secret Service to guard building for Trump shooter days before rally: Body cameras
Undated photograph of Thomas Matthew Crookes. (Courtesy of AFP)
The FBI, citing family members and former classmates of Crooks, said he “would regularly rock back and forth while standing at the bus stop.”
The department said Crooks had never been diagnosed with any disorder, despite his sometimes odd behaviour.
Thomas Matthew Crooks will be a 2022 graduate of Bethel Park High School. (Source: Fox News Digital)
The FBI reportedly told Trump last week that Crooks’ motive was still unknown.
Crooks worked at a care home and was living with his parents at the time of the attack.
Trump assassination attempt: Pennsylvania State Police release body camera footage from Butler rally that ended in deaths
In the weeks leading up to the planned attack, Crooks conducted internet searches about Democratic and Republican politicians, the upcoming Democratic National Convention and “depression.”
Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump speaks at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago on July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
During the roughly 90-minute interview between Trump and a senior FBI official in Pittsburgh, the former president asked most of the questions, according to sources.
The FBI described the meeting with Trump as a “standard victim interview.”
Besides questions about Crooks and how he managed to climb undetected to the roof of a nearby building with an AR-15-style rifle, Trump reportedly wanted to know whether authorities had found any foreign ties to Crooks’ attack.
Trump shooting: Timeline of assassination attempt raises questions about how gunman escaped security
A source told the outlet that Crooks’ passwords were stored on his computer, allowing access to three overseas email accounts he used, but that they found no evidence that anyone else was involved in the attack.
The information collected from the overseas email accounts included information about Crooks’ weapons and ammunition purchases, but did not shed light on why he wanted to assassinate the former president.
A map detailing points of interest related to the investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Trump by Thomas Crooks on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Courtesy of Senator Chuck Grassley)
While newly released information continues to paint a complex portrait of Crooks, lead investigators still have not yet determined with any certainty what motivated the 20-year-old to open fire on Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Former colleagues who have been speaking out since he was president Shot by the Secret Service Some describe the Pennsylvania resident as a quiet loner.
Click here to get the FOX News app
Jason Kohler, who attended the same high school as Crooks, told Fox News that he was “a lonely boy” who was always alone and “bullied every day”.
Julianna Grooms, who graduated a year after Crooks, said Crooks was awkward around the school, wearing camouflage and hunting gear.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
