FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed to the House Judiciary Committee that the investigation into Trump rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks has turned up explosive devices.
The committee noted that the hearing on Wednesday is to “examine the FBI’s investigation into the assassination attempt against President Trump and the ongoing politicization of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency under the direction of FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.”
Wray testified that the FBI “recovered three [explosive] devices, two, in his vehicle and one back in his residence,” referring to the 20-year-old who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I would say these are relatively… crude devices themselves. But they did have the ability to be detonated remotely,” Wray told lawmakers.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“In addition to the two devices that we recovered out of his vehicle, there were receivers for those two explosive devices with the devices. And then on the shooter himself, when he was killed by law enforcement, he had a transmitter with him,” Wray continued.
“Now, I do want to add one important point here is that at the moment… it looks like because of the on/off position on the receivers, that if he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof, it would not have worked,” the FBI chief added. “But that doesn’t mean the explosives weren’t dangerous.”
The FBI has reportedly been investigating the incident as a potential act of domestic terrorism as well as an attempted assassination of the former president who was struck by a bullet on his right ear.
“We have recovered a drone that the shooter appears to have used. It’s being exploited and analyzed by the FBI lab. The drone was recovered in his vehicle. So at the time of the shooting, the drone was in his vehicle with the controller,” Wray explained.
He told lawmakers that Crooks “was flying the drone around the area” of the rally around 4 p.m., about two hours before Trump took to the stage about 200 yards away.
Wray also testified about the weapon that Crooks had used, reportedly firing eight times before being killed by a US Secret Service counter-sniper.
“The weapon that he used for the attempted assassination was an AR-style rifle that was purchased legally, that he – as my understanding – acquired, I think bought actually from his father, who was the one who originally bought it,” Wray said.
The FBI director noted that “it is, quite frankly, a dangerous time to be a prominent public official.”
He addressed reports of Crooks having done some online searches prior to the shooting.
“The shooter appears to have done a lot of searches of public figures in general, but so far we are seeing kind of news articles and things like that,” Wray said, adding, “so the images that have been reported about, really what we are talking about there are when you do a news search of an article the image appears in a cache as opposed to like a search for that specific individual.”
Wray’s testimony follows the dramatic grilling of now-former Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle before the House Oversight Committee on Monday. She subsequently resigned as the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing Tuesday. Cheatle did not make an appearance at that hearing and neither did her boss, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
However, the committee did hear testimony from other witnesses, including Colonel Christopher L. Paris, the commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, and Patrick Yoes, the National President of the Fraternal Order of Police.
“I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated threat environment,” Wray said in his opening statement Wednesday. “The shooter may be deceased but the FBI’s investigation is ongoing.”
(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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