FBI releases photos of the gun used in Trump assassination attempt
CNN
By Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez, CNN
(CNN) — The FBI has released new photos of the gun used to shoot Donald Trump during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as well as the backpack and explosives the shooter had in his car at the rally.
The pictures were released Wednesday as FBI officials gave new details around Thomas Matthew Crooks’ internet searches in the days before the shooting and how investigators are using those searches to piece together his mindset that day.
The photos show the firearm’s collapsable stock, which investigators say may have been used to conceal the rife at the site.
The FBI on Wednesday laid out how Trump’s would-be assassin had researched campaign events for the former president as well as President Joe Biden but then became “hyper-focused” on the Pennsylvania rally just 40 minutes from the shooter’s home.
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, detailed how the shooter saw the Trump rally as a “target of opportunity.” Officials have not yet identified a motive and said that Crooks expressed “no definitive ideology.”
“We saw through our analysis of all his – particularly his online searches – a sustained detailed effort to plan an attack on some events, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” Rojek said. “And then, when this event was announced, the Trump rally was announced, early in July, he became hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at it as a target of opportunity.”
Those searches, Rojek said, also show the detailed searches Crooks made regarding the rally location, including the building where Crooks was when he shot at Trump.
On July 6, nearly a week before the rally, Crooks searched online “where Will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show” as well as “Butler Farm Show podium” and “Butler farm show photos,” Rojek said.
Two days later, Crooks searched “AGR International,” the company that owned the buildings Crooks climbed before opening fire. On July 9, Crooks searched “ballistic calculator” and the next day, he searched “weather” and “Butler.”
Crooks had been researching explosive devices for several years, according to the FBI, who said that from September 2019 to this summer, the shooter had searched terms including “how to make a bomb from fertilizer,” “detonating cord,” “blasting cap,” and “how to remote detonators work.”
FBI officials also forcefully pushed back on conspiracy theories about the attack, flatly stating, for instance, that there was no second shooter targeting the former president that day.
“I can confirm that there was no second shooter,” Rojek told reporters.
On Crooks’ motive, Bobby Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said that investigators have a “clearer idea of mindset” but that “at this time, the FBI has not identified a motive, nor any co-conspirators or associates of Crooks with advanced knowledge of the attack.”
Wells also stressed that “we have not seen any indication that Crooks was directed by a foreign entity.”
When asked about past online posts that seemed political in nature from accounts associated with Crooks, Rojek said the FBI continued “to see through our analysis a mixture of ideologies” from Crooks.
“I would say that we see no definitive ideology associated with our subject, either left-leaning or right-leaning,” Rojek said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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