The gunman who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump searched the internet for events that both Trump and President Joe Biden would attend, looked up information about explosives and watched the Pennsylvania campaign trail where he shot the last Republican candidate. A senior FBI official said Wednesday that the moon was a “target of opportunity.”
Although investigators, who have conducted nearly 1,000 interviews, do not know why 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump at a campaign rally on July 13, they believe he carried out a “wide-ranging attack plan” that included seeking out campaign events involving current and former presidents, particularly in western Pennsylvania.
Kevin Rojek, then the special agent in charge, told reporters Wednesday that an analysis of his internet search history “shows a sustained and detailed effort to plan an attack against certain incidents, meaning he looked at multiple incidents or targets.”
When a Trump rally was announced for July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, “he zeroed in on that particular event and saw it as a target of opportunity,” Rozek said. The criminals’ online searches in the days leading up to the rally included questions about the venue, including: “Where will Trump speak at the Butler Show?” “Butler Farm Show Podium” and “Butler Farm Show Photos.”
In the 30 days leading up to the attack, according to the FBI, Crooks conducted more than 60 internet searches related to Biden and Trump, including searches for the dates of the Democratic and Republican national conventions. FBI Director Christopher Wray previously revealed that a week before the attack, Crooks Googled: “How far was Oswald from Kennedy?”
The above refers to Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
The new details add to an emerging portrait of Crooks as a highly intelligent and reclusive man who investigators say had a disturbing interest in explosives, big events and prominent political figures, but his internet searches are linked to major political parties. He has not yet revealed the exact motive for the attack.
“We have a clear idea of his mindset, but at this point we are not ready to make a definitive statement on motive,” Rojek said. The FBI also has not revealed whether anyone had advance knowledge of the attack or whether Crooks colluded with anyone else.
The FBI found explosives in his car and at his home, and investigators said their internet searches showed he had been seeking bomb-making materials since at least 2019.
The FBI has confirmed that Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2024 election, was shot in the ear during the attack. Crooks, who was standing on the roof of a nearby building, fired eight rounds from an AR rifle. One bystander was killed and two others were injured when the gunman, who was on the roof of a building less than 150 yards (137 meters) away, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
