Trump shooter acted alone, motive still unknown

US authorities said the man who tried to kill former President Donald Trump acted alone and there was no evidence of foreign involvement.

But FBI officials stressed at a press conference on Wednesday that the motive for the attempted murder remains unknown. They said that Thomas Crooks – the 20-year-old attacker – had a “mix of different ideologies.”

Law enforcement described Crooks' search history and released photos of the weapon he used and the explosives found in his car.

Thugs attempted to shoot the former president at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. It grazed Trump's ear, killing one man and seriously wounding two others.

Kevin Rojek, head of the FBI's Pittsburgh office, said crooks began searching online for Trump campaign events in September 2023.

He looked for events for both Trump and President Joe Biden, who was still the Democratic nominee at the time of the shooting. He also looked for the location of the Republican and Democratic national conventions.

“When … the Trump rally was announced in early July, he was hyper-focused on that specific event and viewed it as a target of opportunity,” Rojek said.

Fraudsters registered for the Trump rally a week in advance, Rojek said.

On the same day, the 20-year-old was searching for the distance between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and John F. Kennedy when the Marine veteran shot the US president in 1963.

The crooks also searched for “Where will Trump speak at the Butler Farm Show?” – the location of the rally. His search history showed he had also tried to find bomb-making instructions and ingredients, authorities said.

“We assume that the person planned the attack in detail,” said Rojek.

FBI officials said Crooks' online activity reflected a “mix of ideologies” and they would continue to investigate his online presence.

“We do not see any definitive ideology associated with our issue, neither left-wing nor right-wing,” Mr Rojek said.

Crooks was a registered Republican. In 2021, he donated $15 to the liberal campaign group ActBlue.

Officials said some anti-Semitic comments online “have been linked to accounts associated with [Crooks]“ and that they were working to find out whether he had written it.

The FBI had previously stated that Crooks had at least two social media accounts that displayed conflicting ideological views. The contents of the accounts were not released.

At the Butler rally, Crooks remained on the roof of a nearby building for about six minutes, firing eight shots at Trump, who was speaking on a stage, before a Secret Service sniper killed him.

During Wednesday's press conference, FBI officials also responded to criticism from conservatives, including Republican Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana, who said the agency cleaned up the crime scene too quickly and released Crooks' body to his family too quickly.

Mr Rojek said standard procedures had been followed in cleaning up the site, that Crooks' body had been returned after the autopsy and that it was not standard procedure to keep human remains indefinitely.

The autopsy revealed that Crooks had no trace of illegal drugs or alcohol in his system. The FBI said the Crooks family cooperated with the investigation.

A congressional task force made up of Republicans and Democrats is currently investigating the security deficiencies that led to the shooting.

Kimberly Cheatle, then director of the Secret Service, resigned from her post last month after facing massive pressure from lawmakers.

Her successor as acting director was Ronald Rowe.

At least five Secret Service agents were placed on leave after the security gap.

Last week, Trump held an outdoor rally in North Carolina – his first since the assassination, appearing behind a podium surrounded by bulletproof glass.