Thomas Crooks, 20, had ‘scoped out’ the venue for the former president’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the days leading up to his attempt at killing him.
During a briefing call between the FBI and members of the US Congress afterwards, agents revealed that interrogation of Crooks’ electronic devices unearthed Google searches for un unnamed royal.
The computer whizz had also carried out searches for the bureau’s director Christopher Wray and attorney-general Merrick Garland.
Agents also discovered images of public figures including Trump and Joe Biden, as well as a list of dates of Trump appearances and the Democratic National Convention, The Times reports.
It comes as the US Secret Service faces allegations of failing to protect Trump, who was lucky to survive when one of the gunman’s bullets grazed his ear as he turned his head.
In the congressional briefing Wednesday, FBI and Secret Service officials laid out a clearer timeline.
Crooks was identified as a potential threat a full hour before the shots were fired.
They saw him with the rangefinder roughly 40 minutes before the shooting, and then spotted him again looking through the rangefinder, about 20 minutes before the shooting.
‘We are speaking of a failure,’ Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN.
‘We are going to analyze through an independent review how that occurred, why it occurred, and make recommendations and findings to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
House Oversight Committee Republicans have subpoenaed Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he would set up a task force to investigate, and some Republicans have called on Cheatle to resign.
Cheatle herself said the shooting was ‘unacceptable’, in an interview with ABC News. ‘And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.’
Security has been stepped up for Trump and President Biden, and independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. also received a protective detail.
Biden has ordered an independent review of the shooting.
The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general also opened an investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of the shooting.
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