A Pennsylvania man who plotted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump at a July 13 campaign rally had used a laptop to search the Internet for information about “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told a U.S. House of Representatives committee on July 24.
Wray told the House Judiciary Committee that the attempted assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, had a general interest in public figures but began to focus seriously on Trump around July 6.
Wray’s statement about the Google searches made on a laptop linked to Crooks was one of the biggest revelations yet about the Trump shooting at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Crooks’ search led to Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who fired shots at President John F. Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository as Kennedy’s motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Kennedy died from gunshot wounds.
Wray also told the committee that Crooks had flown a drone near the Trump rally more than two hours before the shooting. The drone recovered from Crooks’ car flew within about 200 yards of Trump’s podium for 11 minutes, beginning at about 3:50 p.m., Wray said.
Ray said the perpetrators appeared to be livestreaming video from the drone, but he did not say whether anyone was watching the video feed.
Wray said no still images or video were recovered from the drone on July 13. The FBI was able to “redesign” the drone’s flight path, Wray said.
Wray said the FBI has not found “any evidence” to date that suggests there were co-conspirators or others who may have helped Crooks plan to attack the former president and his supporters.
Wray said the FBI had recovered three “relatively crude” explosive devices – two from Mr Crooks’ vehicle and one from his home.
Ray said a walkie-talkie recovered under Crooks’ body on the roof of Building 6 of the American Glass Research Complex, north of the venue, was unlikely to detonate the explosives found in Crooks’ car.
Wray said the FBI recovered a roughly 5-foot ladder that Crooks purchased at Home Depot the morning of the shooting, but the ladder was not found at the scene or in Crooks’ vehicle.
This is a developing story and will be updated as news develops.
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