Former President Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation into an attempted assassination in Pennsylvania earlier this month, a special agent disclosed on Monday. The gunman had previously researched mass attacks and explosive devices.
The upcoming interview with the 2024 Republican presidential nominee follows the FBI’s standard protocol of speaking with victims during criminal investigations. The FBI confirmed on Friday that Trump was struck by a bullet or a fragment during the July 13 assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“We want to get his perspective on what he observed,” said Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. “It is a standard victim interview like we would do for any other victim of crime, under any other circumstances.”
Through approximately 450 interviews, the FBI has built a profile of the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, depicting him as a “highly intelligent” but reclusive 20-year-old whose primary social circle was his family, with few friends and acquaintances, Rojek said.
The FBI has not determined a motive for targeting Trump, but investigators believe the shooting was the result of extensive planning. This included the recent purchase of chemical precursors for explosive devices found in his car and home, and the use of a drone near the rally site hours before the event.
Additionally, Rojek noted that Crooks had searched online for information about mass shootings, improvised explosive devices, power plants, and the attempted assassination in May of Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The FBI revealed that on July 6, the day Crooks registered to attend the Trump rally, he googled: “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” referencing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
Crooks’ parents have been “extremely cooperative” with investigators, Rojek said, adding that the extensive planning for the shooting was done online. The parents have claimed no knowledge of Crooks’ plans, and investigators have no reason to doubt their statements, according to the FBI.
