According to the FBI, Trump agrees to be questioned as part of the investigation into his assassination

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

20 mins ago

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio listens as U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has agreed to an interview with the FBI as part of the investigation into his attempted assassination in Pennsylvania earlier this month, an FBI special agent said Monday, revealing that the gunman had researched mass attacks and explosive devices before the shooting.

The expected interview with the 2024 Republican presidential candidate is part of the FBI’s standard protocol to speak to victims as part of its criminal investigations. The FBI said Friday that Trump was hit by a bullet or bullet fragments 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, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. “It’s a standard victim interview, like we would with any other crime victim under any other circumstance.”

In about 450 interviews, the FBI has created a portrait of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, that identifies him as a “highly intelligent” but withdrawn 20-year-old whose social circle was mainly his family and who had few friends and acquaintances throughout his life, Rojek said.

The FBI has not yet been able to find a motive for why he targeted Trump. However, investigators believe the shooting was the result of extensive planning. This included the purchase of chemical precursors in recent months that investigators believe were used to build the explosive devices found in Trump’s car and house. In addition, a drone was used about 180 meters from the rally site in the hours before the event.

In addition, Rojek said, the crooks searched the Internet for information about mass shootings, improvised explosive devices, power plants and the May assassination attempt on populist Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

The FBI said Crooks googled “How far was Oswald from Kennedy?” on July 6, the day he registered to attend the Trump rally, a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the gunman who killed President John F. Kennedy from a sniper position in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

Crooks’ parents were “extremely cooperative” with investigators, Rojek said, and the extensive planning before the shooting took place online. The parents said they knew nothing about Crooks’ plans and investigators had no reason to doubt them, the FBI said.