FBI officials told lawmakers the gunman who tried to kill Trump had also searched for Joe Biden's public appearances, the New York Times reports.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
The gunman who nearly killed Donald Trump last weekend had also searched for information about Joe Biden, according to a report from The New York Times.
In a private briefing with members of Congress on Wednesday, FBI officials updated lawmakers on their investigation into Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who tried to assassinate Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, The Times reported.
The officials told lawmakers that investigators searched through Crooks's browsing history on two of his phones and at least one laptop, according to The Times, which spoke with people who were on the conference call.
They found that he had looked up photos and public appearances of both Trump and Biden, The Times reported. Trump's Saturday rally was near where Crooks lived with parents in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
Crooks — who worked at a nursing home — had also looked up the Democratic National Convention on one of his phones, as well as information about other notable figures like FBI director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, according to The Times' report.
Though Crooks was a registered Republican, he didn't appear to have any strong political beliefs toward the right or the left, which is unusual for someone who attempted an act of political violence, the FBI told Congress, according to the Times. The investigators theorized on the call with Congress that Crooks's search history indicates he might have just been interested in powerful people in general, the outlet reported.
The FBI declined to comment to Business Insider.
The FBI suggested to Congress that Crooks may have been depressed because they found he had looked up "major depressive disorder" on one of his phones, a person on the call told the Times.
But overall, investigators have struggled to pinpoint a motive behind Crooks's attempted assassination of Trump, which left the former president with a minor injury to his ear.
A bystander standing near Trump was killed in the shooting, two more were injured, and Crooks himself was shot and killed by Secret Service snipers.
And it's not just the FBI that can't quite figure out why Crooks tried to kill the former president; those who knew Crooks have also been baffled by his act of violence.
Meanwhile, the Secret Service is facing a scandal unlike any it has faced recently, with former agents, security experts, and lawmakers shocked at the massive security failure that allowed a young man to fire shots at a former president.
