Trump gunman 'researched Kennedy assassination days before shooting'
The gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump googled "how far away was Oswald from Kennedy?" in the days before the shooting, the head of the FBI has revealed.
Answering questions in front of the House Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed that a laptop connected to Thomas Matthew Crooks made the search on July 6, a week before the attack.
The search is a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the gunman who killed President John F Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
In a wide-ranging question session focused mostly on the assassination attempt Wray also revealed Crooks flew a drone roughly 180 metres from the rally stage where the Republican former president would later stand, viewing and livestreaming the footage.
The FBI recovered the drone and a controller from the car of the 20-year-old shooter and is analysing it as agents investigate his background and motive.
Wray's testimony comes on the heels of the resignation of the head of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle after questions were raised over how the shooting was able to take place.
The details about Crooks' use of a drone just hours before Trump took the stage for the rally add to the questions about the security lapses preceding the event.
Wray pledged to lawmakers that the FBI would "leave no stone unturned" in its investigation of a shooting that he called despicable and horrific.
"I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated threat environment, and tragically the Butler County assassination attempt is another example, a particularly heinous and public one, of what I’ve been talking about," Wray said.
Despite being appointed by Trump, Wray has faced a lot of discontent from the Republican Party following complaints that the FBI has become political and favours the Democrats.
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That sentiment was made clear when the panel’s Republican chairman Jim Jordan told Wray: "I'm sure you understand that a significant portion of the country has a healthy scepticism regarding the FBI’s ability to conduct a fair, honest, open and transparent investigation.”
Wray was asked numerous times if a motive behind Crooks's actions had been identified but the FBI director said so far they had found nothing conclusive.
He told the committee that they had found evidence of Crooks investigating public officials from both major parties as well as some foreign leaders but the only thing that connected them was that they were in the public light.
They have previously said Crooks had photos on his phone of Trump and Joe Biden and had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Convention as well as Trump's appearances.
The FBI has said it is investigating the shooting, which killed one rallygoer and seriously injured two others, as an act of domestic terrorism and an attempted assassination.
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