The 20-year-old man who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump appears to have posted “antisemitic and anti-immigration” posts on social media as a teenager, a senior FBI official told a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told senators at a joint hearing of the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees that while investigative teams are still trying to verify the account, it seemed like Trump’s shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks’ posts on social media championed “extreme” views that supported “political violence.”
Abbate explained that if the account belongs to Crooks, it is “important to share” this information that reflects on the "shooter’s potential motive and mindset,” and later added that “while the shooter is dead, our work is very much ongoing and urgent."
Abbate also mentioned that Crooks had visited the rally site six days ahead to plan his attack. He told the Senate committees that the 20-year-old visited the site on July 7 for about 20 minutes in what the FBI claims was a reconnaissance visit, USA Today reported.
Acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe — who replaced the agency's former director Kimberly Cheatle after she failed to satisfactorily answer the committee’s questions — appeared alongside Abbate. Rowe told the Senate that he visited the rally site and climbed onto the roof that Crooks fired from.
"What I saw made me ashamed," Rowe said. "As a career law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured."
The former president was shot at on July 13 with an AR-15-style rifle during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. While Trump narrowly escaped death, with a wound to his right ear, the subsequent bullets intended for him killed one rally attendee and injured two others.
Investigators described Crooks as a loner whose social network was limited to immediate family members.
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