The agency wants the former US president’s ‘perspective on what he observed’ during the rally shooting
Donald Trump has said he will provide an interview to the FBI, as part of an investigation into this month’s attempt on his life, the agency announced on Monday.
The former US president and Republican nominee for 2024 narrowly avoided death at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, when a bullet grazed his ear. One person in the audience was killed, and two more were wounded.
The FBI wants to “get his perspective on what he observed, just like any other witness to the crime,” Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office Kevin Rojek told reporters in a conference call. He explained that this kind of interview is standard practice for a victim of a crime.
More than two weeks since the incident, the FBI has yet to establish the shooter’s motive.
The gunman, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired several shots while Trump was giving a speech at an open-air venue in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
“While the FBI investigation may not yet have determined a motive, we believe the subject made significant efforts to conceal his activities,” Rojek said.
The agency believes his actions illustrate “careful planning ahead of the campaign rally,” the FBI official added. He noted that Crooks had a small social circle, which “appears to be limited to his immediate family,” and had “few friends and acquaintances throughout his life.”
The would-be assassin had previously used aliases to make purchases related to firearms and explosives, Rojek explained. Earlier this year, Crooks bought “six chemical precursor-related purchases online of materials used to create the explosive devices recovered in the subject’s vehicle and home,” he said.
Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency would leave “no stone unturned” as it looks into what happened. A day earlier, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned, after admitting her agency had failed to properly guard the Republican frontrunner.
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