"Some of these comments ultimately attributed to the shooter appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes," deputy director Paul Abbate tells Congress
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FBI deputy director Paul Abbate says a social media account that is seemingly connected to Donald Trump’s shooter might suggest that he was antisemitic and against immigration.
On Tuesday, Abbate sat before Congress to give his testimony on behalf of the bureau, where he revealed that they’ve yet to land on an official motive for Thomas Matthew Crooks following the July 13 assassination attempt.
“While the investigation does not determine motive, the investigation team continues to review information from legal returns — including online and social media accounts,” Abbate said, adding that in a recent discovery, the team came across a social media account that featured hate speech.
“Something just very recently uncovered that I want to share is a social media account, which is believed to be associated with the shooter in about the 2019-2020 time frame,” Abbate said. “There were over 700 comments posted from this account. Some of these comments ultimately attributed to the shooter appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature.”
For now, Abbate said the FBI is still looking into details of the account to solidify its exact origin and owner.
“While the investigative team is still working to verify this account to determine if it did in fact belong to the shooter, we believe it important to share and note it today, particularly given the general absence of other information to date from social media and other sources of information that reflect on the shooter’s potential motive and mindset,” he concluded.
Abbate’s testimony comes two and a half weeks after Crooks attempted to murder Trump during the former president’s campaign rally in Butler, Penn. The presidential hopeful was injured in the ear in the shooting, while spectator Corey Comperatore was killed.
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned in the aftermath of the shooting.
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