Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as investigators dig into the assassination try that left the previous president wounded and fueled a political firestorm.
Trump will take part in what is called a sufferer interview, stated Federal Bureau of Investigation particular agent Kevin Rojek, who’s overseeing the inquiry into the July 13 capturing at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“The interview with the previous president might be per every other sufferer interviews that we do,” Rojek stated in a briefing with reporters Monday. “We need to get his perspective on what he noticed, identical to every other witness to the crime, in addition to get his perspective on what occurred to him throughout that occasion.”
US officers have stated the shooter was 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by the Secret Service. Crooks used foreign-based encrypted e mail apps earlier than the assault, primarily to make nameless purchases, Rojek stated.
“We imagine the topic made important efforts to hide his actions,” Rojek stated.
Crooks additionally did on-line searches for a number of nationwide officers, together with President Joe Biden and different former presidents, stated Rojek, who’s in command of the FBI’s Pittsburgh discipline workplace that’s main the investigation.
The FBI has began releasing extra particulars of of its probe, which is ongoing. Christopher Wray, the bureau’s director, instructed lawmakers final week that Crooks used encrypted messaging apps and flew a surveillance drone over the realm the place the capturing happened.
Along with the FBI’s investigation, lawmakers have launched probes of their very own. Crooks’ capability to entry a rooftop with a transparent line of sight to Trump, the Republican nominee on this 12 months’s presidential race, has sparked searing bipartisan criticism and has turn into a political speaking level in a fiery election marketing campaign.
Crooks additionally looked for data on energy plant operations, mass capturing occasions, data on improvised explosive units and the tried assassination of the Slovakian prime minster earlier this 12 months, Rojek stated.
Crooks additionally made six on-line purchases within the first half of 2024 of chemical substances as a way to construct explosive units, he added.
Investigators haven’t but recognized a motive behind the capturing or any proof that Crooks had any co-conspirators. Investigators proceed to do an evaluation of his actions and the state of his psychological well being.
Behavioral evaluation has rated Crooks as being very smart however socially remoted, in keeping with the findings.
“We do nonetheless imagine that he was a loner,” Rojek stated.
