House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said he wants the FBI to “come to a conclusion” on whether the two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this year were linked to Iran.
Speaking to CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Oct. 6, Turner called on the FBI to release its findings from investigations into would-be assassins Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot at Trump during a Pennsylvania rally in July, and Ryan Wesley Routh, who prosecutors say hid at Trump’s Florida golf course with a rifle for 12 hours with the intention to kill Trump before a Secret Service agent found him.
“Saying that there have been no substantiated ties doesn’t mean that the investigation has concluded that there are no ties,” Turner said.
“And I want those investigations to come to a conclusion and determine whether or not either of these plots have any nexus or connection to the active plot the administration is saying that Iran is plotting in attempting to kill Donald Trump. Which, again, this administration needs to make clear to Iran—that would be an act of war, and needs to have a very strong response from the administration.”
Turner said the FBI needs to make a conclusion and “get to the truth.”
“I don’t think they would be able to get to a point to release information that would conclusively indicate that either of those individuals acted completely alone,” he said.
In the Crooks case, the FBI has not publicly disclosed a motive. Days after the July 13 attempt, FBI officials said that Crooks, who was killed by Secret Service snipers, had acted alone.
The FBI has also not ascribed a particular motive for Routh, although court documents submitted by prosecutors in the case have noted that he apparently wrote a self-published book that encouraged Iran to kill the 45th president for his decision in 2018 to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in the book, published in 2023 and titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” which criticized Trump for pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal and for the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Routh also allegedly left a note with an acquaintance months before the alleged attempted assassination that asserted he was trying to assassinate Trump, according to court documents filed by prosecutors. The note also criticized Trump for how he dealt with Iran during his administration.
Based on social media posts that he made, Routh was an ardent supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia, with posts indicating that he went to Ukraine on multiple occasions and attempted to recruit people to fight in the country.
Last month, Trump’s presidential campaign said that the former president was briefed by U.S. intelligence officials on plots to kill him, including “real and specific threats” posed by the Iranian regime.
The FBI didn’t respond by publication time to a request for comment.
