FBI Director Cristopher Wray testified before a congressional committee on Wednesday to answer questions about the bureau’s investigation into the events and activities that transpired in Butler PA on July 13, the day of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. .In a surprising revelation, Wray said the FBI found the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, did a Google search of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, specifically to find out how far away Kennedy’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was before shooting the president on November 22, 1963. Crooks searched ‘How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?’ said Wray. “We’ve just in the last couple of days found that from our review (and) analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6, he did a Google search for ‘How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?'” Wray told the congressional hearing. “The chilling detail is the latest hint at why Crooks tried to kill Trump during his appearance on stage,” reports the New York Post. “So far, investigators have not been able to find conclusive clues about his motive.” “That’s a search that obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind,” Wray said. “(July 6) is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.” According to the Post, Oswald’s fatal shots on Kennedy’s motorcade were made from a distance of about 88 yards. Crooks was even farther, about 130 yards, still a distance that most practiced marksmen could make. Another significant difference is Crooks fired eight shots in just seconds, while it’s been reported Oswald took three shots in a about one minute. Before that, Wray told members of the House Judiciary Committee Crooks flew a drone roughly 200 yards from the main stage between 3:50 and 4 p.m. on July 13, roughly two hours before Trump began his speech to supporters at the Butler Farm Show grounds. “He was live-streaming the footage,” the FBI director said during a line of questioning from Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), adding that the drone was up in the air for “about 11 minutes.” Wray also said FBI agents discovered three “relatively crude” explosive devices, two of which were later seized from Crooks’ car and another from his residence that had remote detonation capabilities via a transmitter found on his body after he was shot dead by Secret Service counter-snipers, says the Post, adding Wray said the “on/off” switch on the receiver held by Crooks did not appear to be working. “If he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof, it would not have worked,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean the explosives weren’t dangerous.” Agents recovered eight bullet cartridges from the roof of the building where Crooks opened fire, Wray said, adding the shooter had been using encrypted messaging applications. “We did not have any information about the shooter,” he said. “He was not in our holdings before the shooting.” Wray’s appearance came one day after the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberley Cheatle, who on Monday, avoided giving clear, direct answers to questions from the House Oversight Committee, which led to calls from Republicans and Democrats alike for her to step down. Cheatle acknowledged the near-assassination of Trump was the “most significant operational failure” in decades, while still giving Secret Service agents an “A” grade for their response on the ground. The FBI, Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General are all investigating the shooting, which killed a volunteer firefighter and father of one, Corey Comperatore, and seriously wounded two others, David Dutch and James Copenhaver.
