Trump shooter searched ‘how far Oswald was from Kennedy’ as FBI director reveals new investigation details

Days before he fired an AR-15-style rifle at Donald Trump, a 20-year-old gunman had Google searched the distance between former president John F Kennedy Jr and his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

In testimony to a House Oversight Committee investigating the attack, FBI director Christopher Wray said law enforcement analysis of Thomas Matthew Crooks’s devices and digital footprint have not yielded “anything notable in terms of motive or ideology,” but “it does appear fairly clear that he was interested in public figures more broadly.”

“On July 6, he did a Google search for ‘How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?’ and so that’s a search that obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind,” Wray said on Wednesday.

Crooks registered to attend Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that same day, Wray said.

The FBI director also reported that at least three explosive devices were recovered from Crooks’s home and car, and that Crooks’s gun was initially purchased by his father more than a decade ago, well before Crooks brought it from him. Crooks also likely tested the weapon at a shooting range the day before the attack.

The previously unreported details were disclosed to members of Congress as lawmakers press for answers about apparent security lapses and what fueled the attempted assassination of the former president.

“The attempted assassination of the former president was an attack on our democracy,” Wray said in his testimony. “I recognize the congressional and public interest in this case.”

The gunman — who fired several rounds during the rally on July 13, striking Trump’s right ear and killing one attendee and critically injuring at least two others — visited the rally site a week before the event and spent roughly