Photo: Alamy
Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump during a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally last month, used multiple foreign messaging accounts.
Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz, a member of the bipartisan task force investigating the shooting, shared the new information with reporters in Chicago on Wednesday.
“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aid need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad – where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into?” asked Waltz, according to the New York Post.
“That’s a question I’ve had since day one,” he added. “They need to be releasing information as they come across it, because this wasn’t an isolated incident. The threats are continual.”
Crooks fired eight shots at Trump during his campaign rally in Butler. One shot fatally struck Corey Comperatore in the head as he shielded his wife and daughters from the gunfire.
The shooter also injured James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, a 57-year-old Marine veteran. A counter-sniper soon struck Crooks to eliminate the threat.
Trump returned to his first outdoor campaign rally on Wednesday since the July shooting. He was protected by a bulletproof glass shield, along with additional increased security measures.
The use of the messaging apps, including services based in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany, is part of the bipartisan task force’s investigation into the motives behind the shooting.
The Department of Justice also recently released acriminal complaint earlier this monthwith the details of a Pakistani national’s plot to assassinate President Donald Trump.
As RSBN previously reported, Asif Merchant, 46, a Pakistani national with connections to Iran, was charged in Brooklyn, New York, with murder-for-hire charges for his role in an alleged scheme to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official in the United States.
“This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s complaint allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI.”
