The case of the attack on former President Donald Trump on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, remains open. The FBI, which, more than a thousand interviews later, has not yet clarified the motives of the attacker, Matthew Crooks, 20, released four photos from the investigation on Wednesday, as well as new information, but few, about the young man, including that the authorities believe he lacked a “defined ideology.”
Two of the photos show what Crooks, who all indications are that he acted alone, was carrying that day to carry out his macabre mission: an AR-15 type rifle and, in the second image, the disassembled weapon next to the backpack he was seen carrying that day in the area of the attack. In a third, the open trunk of the white car can be seen driving the 80 kilometers that separate his home, also in the state of Pennsylvania, from the farm where the Republican candidate held a rally that Saturday. In that trunk he was carrying two homemade explosives that he did not use.
The last is the image of the industrial building he climbed to aim from one of the watchtowers in a rural area at Trump, whom he shot just 10 minutes after he began speaking. He did so eight times before a Secret Service sniper killed him. One of the bullets, which grazed the former president’s ear, passed 0.6 centimeters from his head. Two attendees at the election event were injured and a third, a volunteer firefighter named Corey Comperatore, died.
In a meeting with journalists, Kevin Rojek, head of the FBI office in Pittsburgh, the largest city closest to the site of the attack, explained that “when Trump’s rally was announced in early July, [Crooks] “He zeroed in on that specific event and saw it as an opportunity” to carry out his plan. Before that, the attacker had sought information about the conventions of both parties. The Republican one was held in Milwaukee two days later, while the Democratic one closed its doors last Thursday in Chicago. Rojek also said that Crooks had inquired about dates for rallies held by President Joe Biden, who at the time was still the Democratic candidate for the White House.
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In the first hours after the attack, it emerged that the young man had registered as a Republican voter and that in 2020 he gave money to a Democratic cause. It also emerged that he had no history of mental health problems. The study of his trail on the internet also did not provide any conclusions about what led him to try to kill Trump. “We have not identified any defined ideology [en Crooks]“It was not left-wing or right-wing,” Rojek added. “It’s more of a mix, and it’s something we’re still trying to sort through in order to draw conclusions.” Agents do know that after weighing “several events and targets,” he decided to focus on the Butler rally and that there began a “sustained and detailed effort to plan the attack.”
FBI Deputy Director Bobby Wells responded at the press conference to a question about whether the agency was aware of foreign involvement in the attack. “I would like to be clear: We have not found any evidence to suggest that Crooks received orders from abroad to carry out the attack,” he said.
Before the authorities’ appearance, Trump had for the second time blamed Biden and Kamala Harris, his current rival at the polls, without evidence for the attempted murder. This was on Tuesday in an interview with the television talk show Dr. Phil,Phil McGraw said. “When it happened, people were asking, ‘Whose fault is this?’ I think to some extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’ fault. I’m their rival. They were using the government as a weapon against me, they used the entire Department of Justice to try to get me,” he said, referring to the former president’s criminal cases, one of which has resulted in a guilty verdict on 34 felony counts. “They weren’t too interested in my health and safety. And they made it very difficult for us to have enough Secret Service agents.” [para su protección]”.
Multiple faults
The investigation into the efforts of the agency in charge of the security of presidents and former presidents that day made it clear that almost everything went wrong at the rally: Crooks was identified as a suspect more than an hour before the event began, before he vanished, but plans to hold it went ahead nonetheless. The security perimeter was also clearly inadequate.
Complaints from Trump’s team about a lack of agents also emerged, and the Secret Service acknowledged that it had ignored some of their requests. Two weeks later, Kimberly Cheatle, its director, resigned after a disgraceful appearance on Capitol Hill, during which she heard merciless criticism from members of both parties. This week it emerged that several of its employees had been suspended while their responsibilities are clarified. There is no evidence, however, that either Biden or Harris interfered in one way or another in the former president’s protection plans.
Trump met with FBI agents as part of the investigation, and Rojek described the meeting as “productive” because the person questioned provided “detailed information.” The Republican candidate returned to hold a rally (in Grand Rapids, Michigan) the Saturday after the attack, but he did so in an indoor venue. On August 21, Trump held his first outdoor campaign event since the day he was nearly killed on live television. He appeared behind bulletproof glass.
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