Current:Home > Contact-usTrump agrees to be interviewed as part of an investigation into his assassination attempt, FBI says-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Trump agrees to be interviewed as part of an investigation into his assassination attempt, FBI says
View Date:2024-12-23 22:51:07
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation into his attempted assassination in Pennsylvania earlier this month, a special agent said on Monday in disclosing how the gunman prior to the shooting had researched mass attacks and explosive devices.
The expected interview with the 2024 Republican presidential nominee is part of the FBI’s standard protocol to speak with victims during the course of their criminal investigations. The FBI said on Friday that Trump was struck by a bullet or a fragment of one during the July 13 assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“We want to get his perspective on what he observed,” said Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. “It is a standard victim interview like we would do for any other victim of crime, under any other circumstances.”
Through roughly 450 interviews, the FBI has fleshed out a portrait of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, that reveals him to be a “highly intelligent” but reclusive 20-year-old whose primary social circle was his family and who maintained few friends and acquaintances throughout his life, Rojek said.
The FBI has not uncovered a motive as to why he chose to target Trump, but investigators believe the shooting was the result of extensive planning, including the purchase in recent months of chemical precursors that investigators believe were used to create the explosive devices found in his car and his home and the use of a drone about 200 yards (180 meters) from the rally site in the hours before the event.
In addition, Rojek said, Crooks looked online for information about mass shootings, improvised explosive devices, power plants and the attempted assassination in May of Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The FBI has said that on July 6, the day Crooks registered to attend the Trump rally, he googled: “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” That’s a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooter who killed President John F. Kennedy from a sniper’s perch in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Crooks’ parents have been “extremely cooperative” with investigators, Rojek said, and the extensive planning that preceded the shooting was done online. The parents have said they had no knowledge of Crooks’ plans, and investigators have no reason to doubt that, the FBI said.
veryGood! (1585)
Related
- What Just Happened to the Idea of Progress?
- Extreme Heat Risks May Be Widely Underestimated and Sometimes Left Out of Major Climate Reports
- 24 Bikinis for Big Boobs That Are Actually Supportive and Stylish for Cup Sizes From D Through M
- Kendall Jenner Shares Plans to Raise Future Kids Outside of Los Angeles
- US Congress hopes to 'pull back the curtain' on UFOs in latest hearing: How to watch
- Labor Secretary Marty Walsh leaves Biden administration to lead NHL players' union
- Driven by Industry, More States Are Passing Tough Laws Aimed at Pipeline Protesters
- Q&A: Gov. Jay Inslee’s Thoughts on Countering Climate Change in the State of Washington and Beyond
- Will Trump curb transgender rights? After election, community prepares for worst
- Air India orders a record 470 Boeing and Airbus aircrafts
Ranking
- Sofia Richie Reveals 5-Month-Old Daughter Eloise Has a Real Phone
- One of the most violent and aggressive Jan. 6 rioters sentenced to more than 7 years
- Shopify deleted 322,000 hours of meetings. Should the rest of us be jealous?
- US Blocks Illegal Imports of Climate Damaging Refrigerants With New Rules
- Charles Hanover: Caution, Bitcoin May Be Entering a Downward Trend!
- Billionaire Hamish Harding's Stepson Details F--king Nightmare Situation Amid Titanic Sub Search
- This week on Sunday Morning (July 16)
- Appeals court rejects FTC's request to pause Microsoft-Activision deal
Recommendation
-
Texas’ 90,000 DACA recipients can sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage — for now
-
Expansion of I-45 in Downtown Houston Is on Hold, for Now, in a Traffic-Choked, Divided Region
-
Inside Clean Energy: Four Charts Tell the Story of the Post-Covid Energy Transition
-
As Oil Demand Rebounds, Nations Will Need to Make Big Changes to Meet Paris Goals, Report Says
-
Mattel says it ‘deeply’ regrets misprint on ‘Wicked’ dolls packaging that links to porn site
-
HarperCollins and striking union reach tentative agreement
-
What we know about Rex Heuermann, suspect in Gilgo Beach murders that shook Long Island more than a decade ago
-
Checking back in with Maine's oldest lobsterwoman as she embarks on her 95th season