FBI releases photos of the gun used in Trump assassination attempt

Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez, CNN

(CNN) — The FBI has released caller photos of nan weapon utilized to sprout Donald Trump during a July rally successful Butler, Pennsylvania, arsenic good arsenic nan backpack and explosives nan shooter had successful his car astatine nan rally.

The pictures were released Wednesday arsenic FBI officials gave caller specifications astir Thomas Matthew Crooks’ net searches successful nan days earlier nan shooting and really investigators are utilizing those searches to portion together his mindset that day.

The photos show nan firearm’s collapsable stock, which investigators opportunity whitethorn person been utilized to conceal nan rife astatine nan site.

The FBI connected Wednesday laid retired really Trump’s would-be assassin had researched run events for nan erstwhile president arsenic good arsenic President Joe Biden but past became “hyper-focused” connected nan Pennsylvania rally conscionable 40 minutes from nan shooter’s home.

Kevin Rojek, nan typical supplier successful complaint of nan FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, elaborate really nan shooter saw nan Trump rally arsenic a “target of opportunity.” Officials person not yet identified a motive and said that Crooks expressed “no definitive ideology.”

“We saw done our study of each his – peculiarly his online searches – a sustained elaborate effort to scheme an onslaught connected immoderate events, meaning he looked astatine immoderate number of events aliases targets,” Rojek said. “And then, erstwhile this arena was announced, nan Trump rally was announced, early successful July, he became hyper-focused connected that circumstantial arena and looked astatine it arsenic a target of opportunity.”

Those searches, Rojek said, besides show nan elaborate searches Crooks made regarding nan rally location, including nan building wherever Crooks was erstwhile he changeable astatine Trump.

On July 6, astir a week earlier nan rally, Crooks searched online “where Will Trump speak from astatine Butler Farm Show” arsenic good arsenic “Butler Farm Show podium” and “Butler workplace show photos,” Rojek said.

Two days later, Crooks searched “AGR International,” nan institution that owned nan buildings Crooks climbed earlier opening fire. On July 9, Crooks searched “ballistic calculator” and nan adjacent day, he searched “weather” and “Butler.”

Crooks had been researching explosive devices for respective years, according to nan FBI, who said that from September 2019 to this summer, nan shooter had searched position including “how to make a explosive from fertilizer,” “detonating cord,” “blasting cap,” and “how to distant detonators work.”

FBI officials besides forcefully pushed backmost connected conspiracy theories astir nan attack, flatly stating, for instance, that location was nary 2nd shooter targeting nan erstwhile president that day.

“I tin corroborate that location was nary 2nd shooter,” Rojek told reporters.

On Crooks’ motive, Bobby Wells, executive adjunct head of nan FBI’s National Security Branch, said that investigators person a “clearer thought of mindset” but that “at this time, nan FBI has not identified a motive, nor immoderate co-conspirators aliases associates of Crooks pinch precocious knowledge of nan attack.”

Wells besides stressed that “we person not seen immoderate denotation that Crooks was directed by a overseas entity.”

When asked astir past online posts that seemed governmental successful quality from accounts associated pinch Crooks, Rojek said nan FBI continued “to spot done our study a substance of ideologies” from Crooks.

“I would opportunity that we spot nary definitive ideology associated pinch our subject, either left-leaning aliases right-leaning,” Rojek said.