Former President Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in the swing state of Pennsylvania, seemingly narrowly dodged certain death after gunshots sounded, apparently clipping his ear.
A 20-year-old man suspected of trying to kill former US president Donald Trump conducted an online search of the John F Kennedy assassination on the day he registered for Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI director Christopher Wray says.
“Analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6, he did a Google search for ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy’, Wray said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
”That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally,” he said, adding that suspect Thomas Crooks had become “very focused on president Trump and his rally” at the time.
Wray said Crooks, a nursing home aide, fired at least eight rounds from his rooftop position near the July 13 rally, wounding the Republican presidential candidate in the ear, killing one rally attendee and wounding two others.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage during a rally on July 13 after being shot. Photo / Getty Images
Wray also told lawmakers that Crooks flew a drone about 180 metres from the stage where Trump spoke to the crowd and live-streamed footage for about 11 minutes, two hours before the event.
He said the crude explosive devices recovered from Crooks’ car and home were designed to be detonated remotely.
Crooks had a transmitter with him at the time of the shooting, Wray added.
But he said the FBI believes the suspect would not have been successful had he tried to detonate the devices.
Thomas Crooks, seen in a yearbook photo, was killed after firing shots at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The hearing also focused on the increasingly tense political atmosphere surrounding the presidential campaign.
”I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated-threat environment. And tragically, the ... assassination attempt is another example, particularly heinous,” Wray testified.
United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building on July 22. Photo / Getty Images
Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan said he expected Wray to answer questions about what happened before, during and after the incident but expressed doubt about the FBI director’s answers even before questioning began.
”I’m sure you understand that a significant portion of the country has a healthy skepticism regarding the FBI’s ability to conduct a fair, honest, open and transparent investigation,” Jordan said.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, the panel’s top Democrat, condemned the Trump shooting “unequivocally and unabashedly” but pointed to years of political threats and violence, and violent rhetoric from Republicans including Trump himself.
”If you think that this one assassin’s bullet was a bolt out of the blue, and not part of a wave of violence that has threatened this nation for years, then you have missed the point,” the New York Democrat said.
