Wray: Failed Trump Assassin Researched Lee Harvey Oswald’s Distance From JFK Before Rally Shooting
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifying before the House Judiciary Committee (Photo: Drew Ungerer/Getty Images)
By Blake Wolf, OAN Staff Wednesday, July 24, 2024 1:16 PM
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday revealed that Thomas Matthew Crooks had recently Googled how far Lee Harvey Oswald was from President John F. Kennedy at the time of his 1963 assassination.
advertisement
Crooks, 20, attempted to take President Trump’s life on July 13 but failed.Number It happened during an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when, miraculously, Trump turned his head to the side at the perfect time, allowing Crooks to deflect the fatal blow, which would have hit Trump in the brain had the former president not acted at the last moment.
“On July 6th, he Googled ‘How far was Oswald from Kennedy?'” Wray said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
🚨🇺🇸FBI Director: Criminals Googled How Far the Kennedy Assassin Was From His Target
“Analysis of a laptop linked to the shooter revealed that on July 6th he Googled ‘how far was Oswald from Kennedy?'”
Crooks was reportedly about 130 yards away from Trump at the time of the assassination attempt — about 40 yards further than Oswald, who killed JFK.
They also found that Crooks had fired eight rounds from an AR-style gun that was legally purchased and owned by his libertarian father. Authorities have not said how Crooks obtained the gun, but gun owners in Pennsylvania are not legally required to store their weapons in a locked safe.
Additionally, Crooks was found to have two remote detonators in his vehicle at the time of the shooting, and additional explosives were found in his home.
Elaborating further on the findings, Ray said:
“If he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof, it probably wouldn’t have worked because of the on/off position of the receivers.”
But Wray’s comments reveal little about Crooks’ motives.
Investigators also claim they have yet to find “conclusive evidence” as to why Crooks plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, though in 2021 he donated money to ActBlue, a donation platform for Democratic candidates and progressive causes.
“This is obviously a significant search in terms of his mental state,” the FBI director said.
During the House Judiciary Committee hearing, Wray also noted that Crooks had flown the drone for about 11 minutes about 200 yards from the main stage at around 4 p.m., which happened to be just two hours before Trump took the stage.
“He was live streaming the footage,” Ray continued.
The FBI director also confirmed that Crooks had visited the rally three times prior to the shooting in preparation for the incident — once a week before the shooting and twice on the day of the incident.
Ray claimed that Crooks had no formal military training but was “a fairly keen shooter”, but this statement contradicts what a classmate who knew him said about him: Crooks had previously wanted to join the school rifle team, but was mocked by other students for his “comically poor” shooting at tryouts.
Officials added that the 20-year-old was not on any official watch lists or databases for safety concerns.
“We had no information about the shooter,” the FBI director said.
Stay up to date! Receive the latest news directly in your email for free. Sign up here: https://www.oann.com/alerts
