Donald Trump’s would-be assassin searched for details of the John F. Kennedy shooting from his laptop and flew a drone in the area near the rally just two hours before the former president took the stage, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday.
The stunning revelations are the latest details about the investigation to come to light this week in congressional hearings about the Trump rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
At the wide-ranging House Judiciary Committee hearing, Wray also shared that investigators believe that Thomas Matthew Crooks use a gun with a collapsable stock and that he accessed the roof of the building by climbing, not with a ladder.
The hearing included a large share of politics, as Republicans repeatedly mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris as they sought to tie the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to border policy and other actions, and Democrats asked Wray repeatedly about Project 2025.
Here are the key takeaways from Wednesday’s hearing:
Shooter looked up information on JFK assassination
According to the FBI’s analysis of Crooks’ laptop, Crooks searched how far Lee Harvey Oswald was when he shot and killed Kennedy in 1963.
The search was on July 6, the same day he registered to attend the rally.
“On July 6, he did a Google search for: ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,’” Wray told the House Judiciary Committee.
“That’s a search that’s obviously significant in terms of his state of mind,” the FBI director added. “That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.”
Shooter flew drone just 2 hours before Trump took the stage
Wray revealed that “around 4 p.m.,” Crooks “was flying the drone around the area” of the rally, approximately 200 yards from the stage.
The drone was in the air for approximately 11 minutes, and investigators believe Crooks watched a live feed from the drone on his phone. CNN previously reported that the drone was found in his car following the shooting.
In addition, Crooks had two explosives in his car at the time of the shooting and one in his home, but likely did not have the ability to detonate them from the roof where he was killed, Wray testified.
“It looks like because of the on/off position on the receivers, that if he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof, it would not have worked,” Wray said.
Wray said that investigators have been able to “reverse-engineer the flight path of the drone from the day of the rally,” and now think that the drone footage “would have shown [the shooter] what would have been behind him.”
“It was almost like giving him a rear-view mirror of the scene behind him,” Wray said.
The FBI is investigating the shooting as both an attempted assassination and as a potential act of domestic terrorism. FBI officials have repeatedly asserted that they believe Crooks acted alone, and Wray reiterated that there is no evidence of any co-conspirators.
Gun had a collapsable stock and was purchased from shooter’s father
Investigators say that Crooks fired approximately eight times from an AR-style rifle at the former president before being killed by a US Secret Service counter sniper.
The rifle Crooks used was purchased from his father, Wray testified.
“The weapon that he used for the attempted assassination was an AR-style rifle that was purchased legally, that he – as my understanding – acquired, I think bought actually from his father, who was the one who originally bought it,” Wray said.
Previously, officials said they believed the firearm belonged to Crooks’ father – not the shooter – and they didn’t know how Crooks accessed the weapon.
“I have been saying some time now that we are living in an elevated threat environment,” Wray said. “The shooter may be deceased but the FBI’s investigation is ongoing.”
Investigators have gone through the shooter’s phone and computer, scoured his search history and bedroom and have interviewed his family and friends, but have struggled to identify what motivated the 20-year-old would be assassin to act.
Crooks also had no prior contacts with the FBI, officials say, and had not been previously on their radar or databases.
Climbed up to the roof
The FBI thinks Crooks used equipment and piping attached to the building to climb up onto the roof where he shot at Trump.
“We now believe the subject climbed onto the roof using some mechanical equipment on the ground and vertical piping on the side of the AGR building,” Wray said. “In other words, we do not believe he used a ladder to get up there.”
The FBI, according to Wray, confirmed that Crooks had previously purchased a roughly five-foot ladder.
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris testified Tuesday that Crooks was on the roof for roughly three minutes before he fired at Trump.
Republicans use hearing to challenge Harris
As Wray testified, GOP members pushed the FBI director to discuss any meetings he has had with Harris during her tenure as vice president, a notable line of questioning now that she is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
The questions ranged from whether Wray has regular briefings with Harris, what her behavior is like in those meetings and what sort of issues she has expressed concerns about.
In one exchange, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz asked how frequently Harris attends briefings that Wray has with President Joe Biden. Wray declined to answer with any specificity.
Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany asked Wray whether Harris “has met with you in regard to the border, or whether she has “specifically asked you for a meeting” about the “threats that are at the border.”
Wray said that he had “been in meetings that include the vice president” in which the border was discussed, but again declined to discuss specific meetings or conversations.
Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz also asked about Wray’s meetings about the border with Harris, asking whether the vice president has “actually initiated” meetings on a regular basis “as the leading border czar.” Wray did not answer.
Shooter was searching for news stories
Wray pushed back against reports that Crooks searched for images of specific prominent public officials online, saying that it appears he was actually searching for news articles.
“The shooter appears to have done a lot of searches of public figures in general, but so far we are seeing kind of news articles and things like that,” Wray said. He continued, “so the images that have been reported about, really what we are talking about there are when you do a news search of an article the image appears in a cache as opposed to like a search for that specific individual.”
The FBI director cautioned that the effort to uncover Crooks’ motive is ongoing, but warned that “it is, quite frankly, a dangerous time to be a prominent public official.”
Employee under internal investigation for post about shooting
Wray said Wednesday that an FBI employee is being internally investigated for posting something “totally inappropriate” about the Trump assassination attempt.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy asked the director whether “any FBI agents texted, emailed or expressed disappointment that Trump survived the assassination attempt or otherwise editorialized about the assassination attempt?”
Wray said he wasn’t aware of any agents acting inappropriately but that there had been one instance “of an individual who posted something that I consider outrageous, totally inappropriate, and unacceptable.”
“That individual has been referred to our inspection division, which is our sort of internal affairs investigatory arm that does the disciplinary process,” Wray said.
Wray did not say where the post was made.
Wray expects more threats from Iran
Wray said on Wednesday that the FBI informed the US Secret Service about an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump, saying that it’s likely law enforcement agencies are going to see more such “brazenness” from Iran in the future.
The director declined to provide details of “specific, classified information,” to the committee but stressed that his agency has been calling out “efforts by the Iranian government to attempt to retaliate for the killing of (Iranian General) Soleimani by going after current or former prominent US officials.”
“I think we need to recognize the brazenness of the Iranian regime, including right here in the United States, and I expect that we’re going to see more of it and I expect there will be more coming on that,” Wray said.
CNN has previously reported that US authorities obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president, multiple people briefed on the matter told CNN. There’s no indication that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin who attempted to kill the former president, was connected to the plot, the sources said.
Schiff, in swipe at Trump’s felony conviction, praises FBI’s ban on hiring felons
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff pressed Wray on the agency’s hiring standards in an effort to criticize the Republican Party’s decision to make Trump, a convicted felon, its 2024 presidential nominee.
“Do candidates for the FBI have to go through background checks?” Schiff asked, to which Wray said yes.
“Would someone with dozens of felony convictions survive a background check for the bureau?” Schiff said.
“No,” Wray replied.
“So they would never be hired by the bureau?”
“No,” Wray said again.
“Clearly, the bureau has higher standards for their hiring than one of America’s great political parties,” Schiff said.
Trump was convicted earlier this year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush money scheme he orchestrated ahead of the 2016 election.
Wray opposes idea to make FBI director report directly to POTUS
Wray testified that he opposes the idea of having the head of the law enforcement agency report directly to the president, a proposal pushed by some Trump supporters.
The restructuring proposal for the FBI is outlined in Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that was created in part by more than 140 former Trump administration employees. Under the plan, the FBI director would no longer report directly to officials within the Justice Department and instead would answer to the president.
“I don’t think that would be a wise approach,” Wray told Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson, when asked about the idea.
“I was appointed by President Trump – I respect that. I think that’s part of our structure,” Wray said. “But independence in terms of how we do our work is what matters to me. And we need to be able to do our work in a way that is free from political interference.”
Wray said he has not read or reviewed Project 2025 and did not comment specifically on it.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.