Gunman in Trump assassination attempt saw rally as ‘target of opportunity,’ FBI official says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The gunman in the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump searched online for events of both Trump and President Joe Biden, looked up information about explosives over the last five years and eyed the Pennsylvania campaign rally where he opened fire last month as a “target of opportunity,” a senior FBI official said Wednesday.

Investigators who have conducted nearly 1,000 interviews do not yet have a motive for why 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump during a July campaign rally but they believe that he conducted “extensive attack planning,” including looking up campaign events involving both the current president and former president, particularly in western Pennsylvania.

The FBI analysis of his online search history reveals a “sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters Wednesday in the latest in a series of briefings on the investigation.

Once a Trump rally was announced for July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, “He became hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at it as a target of opportunity,” Rojek said. Crooks’ internet searches in the days leading up to the rally included queries about the grounds where the rally was held, “Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show?” “Butler Farm Show podium” and ”Butler Farm Show photos.”

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