Trump gunman Thomas Crooks searched for details about Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination of President John F. Kennedy before he opened fire on the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, the FBI director revealed Wednesday.
“We’ve just in the last couple of days found that from our review… analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6, he did a Google search for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” Christopher Wray told a congressional hearing.
The chilling detail is the latest hint at why Crooks tried to kill Trump during his appearance on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania. So far, investigators have not been able to find conclusive clues about his motive.
“That’s a search that obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind,” Wray said. “That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.”
Oswald’s fatal shots on Kennedy’s motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963 were made from about 88 yards. Crooks was even farther, about 130 yards — though still a distance that most practiced marksmen could make.
Earlier, Wray told members of the House Judiciary Committee that Crooks operated the drone roughly 200 yards from the main stage between 3:50 and 4 p.m. on July 13, roughly two hours before Trump began his speech to supporters at the Butler Farm Show grounds.
“He was live-streaming the footage,” the FBI director confirmed during a line of questioning from Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), adding that the drone was up in the air for an “about 11 minute” window.
Wray also revealed that three two “relatively crude” explosive devices, two of which were later seized from Crooks’ car and another from his residence that were capable of had remote detonation capabilities via a transmitter found on his body after he was shot dead by Secret Service counter-snipers.
However, the “on/off” switch on the receiver held by Crooks did not appear to be working.
“If he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof, it would not have worked,” Wray noted. “But that doesn’t mean the explosives weren’t dangerous.”
Eight bullet cartridges were also recovered from the roof where Crooks opened fire, Wray said, and the 20-year-old shooter had further been using encrypted messaging applications.
“We did not have any information about the shooter,” the FBI director also disclosed. “He was not in our holdings before the shooting.”
The Judiciary panel hearing comes one day after the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, whose disastrous testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Monday led to bipartisan calls for her to step down.
Cheatle told lawmakers that the near-assassination of Trump, 78, was the “most significant operational failure” in decades — but still gave Secret Service agents an “A” grade for their response on the ground.
The FBI, Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General are all investigating the shooting, which killed a volunteer firefighter and father of one, Corey Comperatore, and seriously wounded two others, David Dutch and James Copenhaver.