The shooter who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, utilized encrypted messaging accounts across various platforms based in Belgium, New Zealand, and Germany, Fox News reports, citing a House representative involved in a congressional task force investigating the incident.
Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Green Beret appointed to the 13-member House bipartisan task force investigating the attempted assassination of Trump, told reporters about the accounts while at the Trump Hotel Chicago Wednesday.
One reporter asked Waltz what he and other members of the task force had learned during the investigation and about the encrypted messages on the gunman’s cellphone.
“We still haven’t learned a lot. We haven’t learned that much about those overseas accounts,” he said, referring to accounts held by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks. “We do know that they were in, if I get this correctly, Belgium, New Zealand and Germany.
“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aide need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad, where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into? That’s a question I’ve had since day one.”
The representative then turned his attention to the FBI and Secret Service, bashing them for not saying a thing until they complete their investigations months from now.
“They need to be releasing information as they come across it, because this wasn’t an isolated incident,” Waltz said. “The threats are continually Iran’s threats.”
Waltz then cited an alleged plot that was foiled regarding a Pakistani national who paid off hitmen to kill Trump and other U.S. officials.
The New York Post reported that the FBI is scheduled to brief members of the task force on Wednesday, which Waltz said he hopes will provide insight into the “ridiculously flawed” security detail at the Trump campaign in Butler July 13, 2024.
Both the FBI and Secret Service are conducting their own investigations into the assassination attempt, as is the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.
On the evening of the rally, Crooks opened fire on the main stage, narrowly missing Trump and grazing his ear with a bullet. The attack killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore, 50, and injured 57-year-old David Dutch and 54-year-old James Copenhaver.
