By ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as a part of a an investigation into his attempted assassination A special investigator announced Monday that the gunman had researched mass attacks and explosive devices before the shooting in Pennsylvania.
The expected interview with the 2024 Republican presidential candidate is a component of the FBI's standard protocol to talk to victims throughout the course of its criminal investigations. The FBI said Friday that Trump hit by a bullet or bullet fragments throughout 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 command 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.”
Through around 450 interviews, the FBI has created a portrait of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crookswhich identifies him as a “highly intelligent” but withdrawn 20-year-old whose most vital social circle was his family and who had few friends and acquaintances throughout his life, said Rojek.
The FBI has not yet been capable of discover a motive for why he targeted Trump. However, investigators consider the shooting was the result of intensive planning. This included the acquisition of chemical precursors in recent months that investigators consider were used to construct the explosive devices present in Trump's automotive and house. In addition, a drone was used about 180 meters from the rally site within the hours before the event.
In addition, Rojek said, the crooks searched the Internet for details about mass shootings, explosive devices, power plants and the attempted assassination in May. The populist Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The FBI said that on July 6, the day he registered to attend the Trump rally, Crooks googled: “How far was Oswald from Kennedy?” This is an allusion to Lee Harvey Oswald, the gunman who killed President John F. Kennedy from a sniper post 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.
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