FBI director reveals new details on how Trump shooter carried out attack

The gunman who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump may have had a firearm with a collapsible stock, making it easier for him to carry and conceal the weapon, the director of the FBI testified Wednesday.

The gunman also had researched President John F. Kennedy’s assassination,FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

On July 6, Thomas Crooks, 20, searched “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy,” referring to the 1963 assassination, Wray told a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

The collapsible stock, Wray said, would explain why witnesses did not see Crooks walking around with a weapon beforehand and why the firearm was not spotted until Crooks was already on the roof.

Crooks fired at least eight shots and also flew a drone about 200 yards away from the campaign rally’s main stage area in Butler, Pennsylvania, about two hours before it began on July 13, Wray said.

Authorities recovered the drone in Crooks’ car, where they also found a drone controller and two explosive devices that could be remotely detonated, Wray said.

Crooks had a transmitter on him, the director said, adding that it appears the remote detonation “would not have worked.”

Eight bullet cartridges were found on the roof with the gunman’s body, he said.

Wray said Crooks had purchased a ladder, about 5-foot tall, according to a bloodied receipt that he had on him, but the ladder was not found at the scene. The FBI director said it is unclear how Crooks got onto the roof.

Lawmakers say key questions surrounding the shooting remain unanswered, particularly by Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned as director of the Secret Service on Tuesday after Republicans accused her of failing to fully cooperate with the House Oversight Committee in testimony the day