Speaking at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin of President Donald Trump, had searched online for details about how far John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was from the president on the day of the assassination.
Wray stated:
“One of the things that I can share here today that has not been shared yet is that we’ve just in the last couple of days, found that from our review— to your point about devices—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.’ And so that’s a search, obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind,”
Wray added that this search took place on the same day Crooks registered for the Butler rally in Pennsylvania.
Crooks had also previously searched for information related to Ethan Crumbley, who shot and killed four classmates and wounded six others at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021.
During the Wednesday hearing, Wray mentioned that Crooks had flown a drone in the rally area around 4 p.m., about two hours before Trump took the stage in Butler. Crooks had been live-streaming for approximately 11 minutes.
On July 13, Crooks opened fire from a nearby rooftop at a Trump rally. Trump was hit in the ear, while former fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed while shielding his family. Two others were injured in the assassination attempt.
Wray told lawmakers that the investigation is still ongoing and the FBI is continuing to examine Crooks’ devices. “I think it’s fair to say that we do not yet have a clear picture of his motive,” he said.