FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday provided an update on the federal investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally earlier this month.
So far, the FBI has not identified a motive for suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’ actions. He was shot and killed immediately after opening fire on the rally, killing one rally-goer, injuring two others, and striking former President Trump in the right ear.
“We have recovered a drone that the shooter used,” he said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, adding that it was taken from his vehicle. Two hours before the rally shooting, Mr. Crooks was flying the drone “about 200 yards away” from the rally stage area, the FBI director said.
Three explosive devices were also recovered, he said, describing them as “relatively crude” and capable of being detonated remotely.
Both the FBI and the Pennsylvania State Police have interviewed more than 100 people since the incident, Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday.
Both Col. Paris and Mr. Wray in the separate hearings said that a detonator of sorts was found on the shooter after he was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper. The police official did not have any knowledge of a possible motive.
Details about the 20-year-old shooter have remained unclear, including whether he was motivated by a particular political animus or something else. Several former classmates recalled him being quiet, and some claimed he was bullied, although the bullying assertions were refuted by the school he had attended. The school also refuted claims that he was on the high school’s rifle team.
Multiple security lapses at the rally, including officials reporting the would-be assassin as a suspicious person before he climbed onto a roof that had a direct line of sight to the former president, have triggered intense scrutiny of the Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned on Tuesday.
During hours of questioning, Ms. Cheatle provided little to no insight into why a suspicious person was allowed to climb the roof or why an agent was not stationed on the building from which the gunman fired. In an interview last week, Ms. Cheatle said that no agent was positioned on the roof because it was sloped.
When asked about the Secret Service’s preparations, Mr. Wray said that the FBI is only focused on the shooter and why he carried out the assassination attempt. He did not make any comments about the protective agency’s actions during the incident.
Also during the hearing, Mr. Wray repeated his warning that the United States is currently in the midst of an “elevated threat environment,” saying that the “particularly heinous” rally shooting underscores previous warnings he’s delivered before Congress.
“The men and women of the FBI will continue to work tirelessly” to determine what happened, Mr. Wray told the House Judiciary panel. The FBI investigation is “very much ongoing,” he said, adding that there are “a lot of open questions” and that the bureau’s “assessment of the shooter and his actions continue to evolve.”
