Donald Trump suggests assassination attempt an ‘inside job’
Donald Trump sensationally hit out at the FBI’s ‘strange’ investigation of the shooting, a day after saying Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had a ‘certain extent’ of blame.
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Donald Trump said he’s beginning to “wonder” whether the assassination attempt at his election campaign rally was an inside job.
The sensational claim came after the FBI said shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks became “hyper-focused” on the Pennsylvania rally as part of a “sustained” effort to attack an event of any kind not tied to political ideology.
Mr Trump said FBI’s handling of the investigation led him to change his thinking on who was behind the assassination attempt.
“It’s strange. The father hired the most expensive lawyer, and he lives in the area, supposedly not very much money. He hired the most expensive lawyer. Think of this. Who’s paying for this lawyer in Pennsylvania?” Mr Trump said.
“Is the lawyer doing it for free? I doubt it. Are the Democrats paying for his legal fees?”
The comments, the furthest Mr Trump has gone at directly indicating his opponents, came a day after he told Dr Phil McGraw that president Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were responsible “to a certain extent”.
“When this happened, people would ask, whose fault is it? I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault and Harris’s fault. And I’m the opponent. They were weaponising government against me, they brought in the whole DoJ to try and get me, they weren’t too interested in my health and safety,” Mr Trump told Dr McGraw.
“They were making it very difficult to have proper staffing in terms of Secret Service.”
Mr Trump went a step further in comments about the “very suspicious” FBI investigation during a podcast with Monica Crowley, Former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs.
Asked whether he thought Mr Crooks was acting alone or if the attempted assassination was an “inside job”, Mr Trump did not rule it out.
“There’s so many things going on here that you do have to wonder. You do have to wonder,” Mr Trump said.
“And I think they ought to get — and I think they ought to find out who’s paying for the lawyer, where’s the money coming from, because I wasn’t thinking this way three weeks ago. But the more you see it, the more you start to say there could be something else.”
The parents of Thomas Matthew Crooks hired a team of lawyers amid increasing scrutiny over what they knew about the attempted assassination.
Republicans on the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination said it wasn’t clear that Mr Crooks acted alone when opened fire at the Pennsylvania rally, injuring several people and killing one audience member.
A Crooks family member told The Daily Mail that Matthew and Mary Crooks hired Quinn Logue, a law firm described as trial attorneys who specialise defending suites including wrongful death and personal injury, the Mail reported.
CROOKS ‘HYPER-FOCUSED' ON TRUMP
Thomas Matthew Crooks “became hyper-focused” on Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania as part of a “sustained” effort to attack an event of any kind not tied to political ideology, according to the FBI.
Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, said Mr Crooks “looked at any number of events” before it was announced Mr Trump would hold a rally near his home in Butler.
The FBI released new images of the weapon used during the failed assassination attempt, as well as the backpack that contained explosives.
But after almost 1000 interviews, investigators still did not reveal a motive for Mr Crooks beyond Mr Trump being a “target of opportunity”.
After more than 60 internet searches related to both Joe Biden and Mr Trump, Mr Crooks in early July turned his attention to Mr Trump’s rally not far from the shooter’s home.
“He became hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at it as a target of opportunity,” Mr Rojek said.
“Crooks’ internet searches in the days leading up to the rally included queries about the grounds where the rally was held, “Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show?” “Butler Farm Show podium and “Butler Farm Show photos.”
Mr Rojek said Mr Crooks had an interest in explosives, major events, and high-profile political figures but that their investigations were unable to pinpoint the reason he tried to kill Mr Trump.
“We have a clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time,” Mr Rojek said.
‘EVIDENCE TAMPERING’: SNIPER’S DAMNING TESTIMONY
A counter-sniper who was working at the rally where Donald Trump was nearly shot dead has given damaging evidence against the FBI. Washington Regional SWAT counter-sniper Ben Shaffer told a panel hosted by Republican politicians it was “absolutely” concerning that the roof gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks had been hiding on had been quickly scrubbed and his body disposed of before an official autopsy report could be released.
“Do you find it odd that literally only days after the attempted assassination on President Donald J. Trump, while the roof was too sloped to place individuals for counter-sniper operations, that it wasn’t too sloped of a roof for the FBI to go ahead and tamper, in my opinion, with evidence by washing the roof off that may have had significant evidence on it?” Rep Cory Mills of Florida, asked Shaffer, according to the New York Post.
“Yes, I do,” Shaffer answered.
“Do you also find it odd … that the body of Matthew Crooks had not only been released and cremated — but that the coroner who’s responsible for releasing the body had no knowledge of it?” Mills asked.
“Yes, absolutely,” Shaffer said.
The New York Post reports that Erik Prince, a former US Navy SEAL and founder of private military contractor Blackwater, chimed in telling the panel: “It sounds like destruction of evidence”.
US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was previously grilled over the security measures at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 where one audience member was shot dead and three others, including Mr Trump, were injured.
In a bizarre claim, she said that the would-be assassin was positioned on a ‘slopping’ rooftop on the AGR International building and hence the Secret Service could not secure the building.
Shaffer told the panel that Crooks being seen walking the grounds of the Butler Farm Show with a rangefinder scope should have elevated him from a “suspicious person” to a “person of interest”, according to the New York Post.
“That would warrant some type of either investigatory detention or stop-and-question,” he said.
Crooks was first photographed by local counter-snipers at 5.10pm and observed with the rangefinder “shortly after 5.38pm,” according to Shaffer — 33 minutes before he targeted Mr Trump at 6.11pm.
Counter-sniper teams fired two shots in response, but it is unknown whether just one of those shots or both killed Crooks, Shaffer noted in his testimony.
SHOOTER’S PARENTS HIRE TOP LAWYERS
The parents of Thomas Matthew Crooks hired a team of lawyers amid increasing scrutiny over what they knew about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
A Crooks family member said that parents, Matthew and Mary Crooks, engaged a law firm that specialises in criminal and civil defence; as investigators meanwhile question whether the 20-year-old acted alone.
It comes as the FBI and Secret Service were accused of “stonewalling” US Congress over its investigation into the former president’s shooter, whose body was secretly cremated without notice.
“[The FBI] still very much has questions about how much” Mr and Mrs Crooks knew ahead of their son’s assassination attempt, a family member told The Daily Mail. “And how he slipped through the net”.
Republicans on the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination said it wasn’t clear that Mr Crooks acted alone when he opened fire at the Pennsylvania rally, injuring several people including the former president and killing one audience member.
“You can’t tell us his motive, but you could tell us he operated alone? You can’t get into these encrypted overseas accounts, but you can tell us he acted alone? So, I don’t buy that yet,” Representative Mike Waltz told the Mail.
“I don’t know of many 19-year-old kids who could make multiple IEDs with a remote detonator on their own. Why didn’t that get picked up if he’s searching that online or buying literature on how to do that?”
Senator Ron Johnson added that the FBI and Secret Service were “dragging their feet” and heavily redacting documents being requested by the Homeland Security Committee.
“If you want to design an investigation to raise suspicions and drive conspiracy theories, this is exactly how you do that investigation,” Mr Johnson told Fox News.
“It was just jaw-dropping they released the body for cremation before anybody had seen any autopsy or toxicology report. Again, it’s driving suspicion and conspiracy theories.”
The FBI was accused of “scorching the earth” after it was revealed Mr Crook’s body was released to his family for cremation without notice to House investigators.
Crooks family has hired Quinn Logue, a law firm described as trial attorneys who specialise defending suites including wrongful death and personal injury, the Mail reported.
Firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed in the shooting, while David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, were also injured.
Mr Crooks has not publicly commented since the assassination attempt, telling Fox News to “give us space”.
“We’re going to release a statement when our legal counsel advises us to do so — until then, we have no comment,” Mr Crooks said when approached outside a supermarket last month.
“We just want to try to take care of ourselves right now.”
SECRET SERVICE AGENTS ON LEAVE
Multiple Secret Service agents have been placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into the security failures that led to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
At least five officials from the US Secret Service Pittsburgh Field Office, which was responsible for the planning of Mr Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, are barred from taking part in further operations until the results of the internal review.
It includes one member of the former president’s personal protective team and four from the field office, including the special agent in charge who was responsible for co-ordinating the security plan with local law enforcement
More senior officials are expected to be caught up in the review, according to sources who confirmed the disciplinary action to US media outlets including Fox News, ABC News and NBC News.
While the Secret Service has not commented on the agents placed on leave, a spokesman said in a statement that the agency holds its personnel to the “highest professional standards”.
“The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure,” Anthony Guglielmi, the USSS chief of communications said in a statement.
“The U.S. Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action. Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further.”
A separate group of agents “deeply involved” in the Pennsylvania rally remain on Mr Trump’s permanent protective detail, according to Real Clear Politics, which was the first outlet to report the agents had been placed on leave.
Three sources in the Secret Service told RCP the agents were placed on leave after Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was grilled by US Senators three weeks ago over the lack of disciplinary action against those involved in Mr Trump’s security planning.
Mr Trump’s security detail got an upgrade with bulletproof glass for his return to outdoor rallies.
But during a trip to the southern border with Mexico, Mr Trump was forced to abruptly end an interview, saying “We’re in danger here”.
Amid a massive manhunt in Arizona for a man who threatened to kill Mr Trump, the former president said it wasn’t safe to continue an interview with News Nation.
“Can I tell you something? We’re in danger standing here talking. So let’s not talk any longer,” he said.
“(Security) doesn’t want me standing here. They don’t want you standing here either.”
It comes after Mr Trump spoke at the border wall without the new bulletproof glass upgrades for his outdoor rallies following an assassination attempt six weeks ago.
Cochise County put out a warning for 66-year-old Ronald Lee Syrvud, saying the convicted sex offender was “being sought as an investigative lead for threats to kill a presidential candidate”.
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