WASHINGTON — The man who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump last month had searched for information on both the Republican and the Democratic national conventions before ultimately opening fire on the former president's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI officials told reporters Wednesday, suggesting that the Trump event was a "target of opportunity."
FBI officials also said they had found no indication or evidence that any co-conspirators worked with 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to kill Trump just days before he accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the RNC.
"I want to be clear: We have not seen any indication to suggest Crooks was directed by a foreign entity to conduct the attack," FBI Assistant Director Bobby Wells told reporters.
Another official, Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s Pittsburgh field office, said that, in addition to searching for information on both conventions, the shooter also searched for details of campaign events held by both Trump and President Joe Biden, who was still the presumptive Democratic nominee when Trump was shot.
Crooks engaged in a “sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack" and "looked at any number of events and targets" before ultimately "hyperfocusing" on the Trump rally after it was announced in early July. The Trump rally appears to have been a “target of opportunity,” Rojek said.
On July 5, Crooks made internet searches for “when is the DNC convention” and “when is the RNC in 2024.”
Rojek said that investigators found a "mixture of ideologies" in the content the FBI recovered from Crooks' accounts. "I would say that we see no definitive ideology associated with our subject, either left-leaning or right-leaning," he said. "It's really been a mixture and something we're still attempting to analyze and draw conclusions on."
The shooter’s family had been “extremely cooperative” with the investigation, Rojek added.
A bullet whizzed by Trump's skull and struck him in the ear during the July 13 attack, leaving the former president bleeding as the Secret Service formed a wall around him and ushered him to a vehicle. Crooks was shot and killed seconds after the shots rang out. A rally attendee, former fire chief Corey Comperatore, was killed in the attack, and others were injured.
Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service at the time of the shooting, stepped down last month under pressure from lawmakers. Multiple officials at the Secret Service were placed on leave as an internal investigation into the rally planning unfolds, a source familiar with the decisions told NBC News.
Last week, Trump spoke from behind bulletproof glass during an outdoor rally in Asheboro, North Carolina.
The FBI said its victim impact interview with Trump was "productive" and noted that it had provided the former president with an "in-depth briefing" on the investigation.
"We're grateful to the former president for his cooperation and his time," Rojek said.
