The FBI revealed Tuesday that Donald Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks may have owned a social media account whose posts were antisemitic, anti-immigrant, and ultimately “extreme in nature.”
FBI deputy director Paul Abbate did not say what social platform the account was active on, but he said it had pushed out hundreds of posts in 2019 and 2020. Support for political violence was among the posts, he said.
“There were over 700 comments posted from this account,” said Abbate. “Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature.”
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Abbate testified that investigators have not determined a definitive motive behind the assassination attempt. However, he said agents are beginning to get a clearer picture of who Crooks, a 20-year-old who lived with his parents and worked at a nursing home, really was.
Despite its ownership not being confirmed, Abbate said the agency felt it was important to detail the social account’s nature because of the “general absence of other information” about Crooks’ “motive and mindset.”
The comments come as lawmakers have pressed the Secret Service and FBI for answers about Crooks, who was shot dead within seconds of opening fire at a Trump rally on July 13.
Ronald Rowe, the Secret Service’s acting director, testified Tuesday that he was “ashamed” by his agency’s failures and was prepared to be candid about them. He said he visited the rally site in Pennsylvania after the attack and couldn’t believe how clear of a shot—from less than 400 feet—Crooks was able to take at Trump.
“I laid in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight,” Rowe said. “What I saw made me ashamed. As a career law enforcement officer and a 25 year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured to prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future.”
