The man who tried to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appears to have posted violent antisemitic and anti-immigration content online as a teenager, a senior FBI official told a US Senate hearing on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate at the hearing revealed the existence of the social media account, which dated to 2019-2020 - when Thomas Crooks, who authorities have identified as the shooter, would have been 15 or 16 years old.
It is some of the first evidence to become public about a potential motive in the July 13 attack at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania.
"Something just very recently uncovered that I want to share is a social media account which is believed to be associated with the shooter in about the 2019-2020 time frame," Abbate told lawmakers, adding that more than 700 comments were posted by the account.
"Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature," Abbate said.
Crooks shot at Trump with an AR-15-style rifle during the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounding the former President' in the ear, killing one rally attendee and wounding two others. Secret Service snipers killed Crooks after he opened fire.
Investigators have described Crooks as a loner with no close friends and a social network limited mainly to immediate family members.
The attempted assassination is the topic of multiple investigations by House and Senate committees, as well as a new bipartisan task force.
On Monday, a special agent said that Trump agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation into his attempted assassination.
Trump said in a subsequent Fox News interview that he expected the FBI interview to take place Thursday.
1 comment:
Don't believe one word this FBI says. They are covering up all the information that they most definitely have by now that he was a violent anti-trump leftist. They are only providing Cherry picked information that can leave the listener with doubt that maybe he was on the right.
Congress should pass a law that anybody who hides this important information before the election will sit in jail for 30 years.
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