FBI director: Trump shooter did online search for JFK assassination
Rewrites with Crooks online search of JFK assassination
By David Morgan and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) -The 20-year-old man suspected of trying to kill former President Donald Trump conducted an online search of the John F. Kennedy assassination on the day he registered for Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday.
"Analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6, he did a Google search for -quote - 'how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,'" Wray said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
"That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally," he said, adding that suspect Thomas Crooks had become "very focused on President Trump and his rally" at the time.
Former President Kennedywas assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald.
Wray said Crooks, a nursing home aide, fired at least eight rounds from his rooftop position near the July 13 rally, wounding the Republican presidential candidate in the ear, killing one rally attendee and wounding two others.
Crooks used an AR-15 assault-style rifle with a collapsible stock, "which could explain why it might have been less easy for people to observe," Wray said.
The motive for the shooting remains unclear. Wray said many people have described Crooks as a loner and the list of contacts in his phone was short.
Wray also told lawmakers that Crooks flew a drone about 200 yards (180 meters) from the stage where Trump spoke to the crowd and live-streamed footage for about 11 minutes, some two hours before the event.
He said the crude explosive devices recovered from Crooks' car and home were designed to be detonated remotely. Crooks had a transmitter with him at the time of the shooting, Wray added. But he said the FBI believes the suspect would not have been successful had he tried to detonate the devices.
The hearing also focused on the increasingly tense political atmosphere surrounding the presidential campaign.
"I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated-threat environment. And tragically, the ... assassination attempt is another example, particularly heinous," Wray testified.
Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday after bipartisan demands to quit over the failure to prevent the attempted assassination.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said he expected Wray to answer questions about what happened before, during and after the incident but expressed doubt about the FBI director's answers even before questioning began.
"I'm sure you understand that a significant portion of the country has a healthy skepticism regarding the FBI's ability to conduct a fair, honest, open and transparent investigation," Jordan said.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, the panel's top Democrat, condemned the Trump shooting "unequivocally and unabashedly" but pointed to years of political threats and violence, and violent rhetoric from Republicans including Trump himself.
"If you think that this one assassin's bullet was a bolt out of the blue, and not part of a wave of violence that has threatened this nation for years, then you have missed the point," the New York Democrat said.
Wray has long faced opposition from hardline Republicans, some angered over the arrest of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress certified President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.
Reporting by David Morgan and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell, Nick Zieminski and Rod Nickel
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
