FBI: Trump Shooter Shared Violent Content Online as Teen

The FBI reports that the individual who committed the shooting at a Trump event had a history of sharing violent content online during their teenage years. This revelation provides insight into the shooter's background and raises questions about the potential influence of early online behavior on later actions, highlighting the importance of monitoring and addressing violent content on social media platforms.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate disclosed at the hearing the presence of a social media account. This account dates back to 2019-2020, a period when Thomas Crooks, the identified shooter, would have been 15 or 16 years old.

Thomas Crooks shot at Trump with an AR-15-style rifle during the rally in Butler

The man who attempted to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reportedly posted violent antisemitic and anti-immigration content online as a teenager, a senior FBI official revealed during a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday. FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate disclosed the existence of a social media account dating back to 2019-2020, when Thomas Crooks, the identified shooter, would have been 15 or 16 years old. This account provides some of the first evidence regarding a potential motive for the July 13 attack at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania.

"Recently uncovered evidence I want to share is a social media account believed to be associated with the shooter from around 2019-2020," Abbate informed lawmakers, noting that over 700 comments were posted by this account.

"Some of these comments, if confirmed to be from the shooter, appear to contain antisemitic and anti-immigration themes, advocating political violence, and are extreme in nature," Abbate stated.

Crooks, aged 20, fired an AR-15-style rifle at Trump during the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, injuring the former president's ear, killing one rally attendee, and wounding two others. Secret Service snipers killed Crooks after he began shooting.

Investigators have described Crooks as a loner with no close friends, with a social network limited mainly to his immediate family.

This incident marks the first shooting of a U.S. president or major party candidate in more than four decades, highlighting a significant security lapse that led to the resignation of former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle under bipartisan congressional pressure.

Her successor, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, visited the rally site in Butler and inspected the roof of a nearby building from which Crooks fired.

"What I saw made me ashamed," Rowe told a joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. "As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot justify why that roof was not better secured."

Rowe assured lawmakers that steps have since been taken to prevent similar security breaches, addressing concerns from both Democrats and Republicans about further political violence as the campaign heats up ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

Crooks had flown a drone near the rally site before his assassination attempt, which officials failed to detect due to a malfunction in the drone detection system caused by issues with cellular network bandwidth, Rowe explained.

The Secret Service, responsible for protecting the president and other top political figures, has since added six people to its protection list, including Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance and his family and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, while reinforcing security details, Rowe reported.

"This attack was a shocking reminder that the threat of political violence remains present in our country. By all accounts, this was an inexcusable security and planning failure," said Democratic Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters, noting that his panel is working on reforms to strengthen Secret Service security protocols.

Senator Rand Paul, the committee's top Republican, pointed out communication gaps between local police who first noticed Crooks and the Secret Service.

Rowe stated that Secret Service counter snipers and members of the Trump security detail were unaware of the presence of a man with a firearm on the roof of a nearby building.

The attempted assassination is under investigation by multiple House and Senate committees, as well as a new bipartisan task force.

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