Retired agent gives insight into how FBI will investigate Trump assassination attempt

ATLANTA — The process of figuring out the motive behind Saturday’s assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump that left a rally attendee dead is in full swing.

The FBI has gained access to the shooter’s phone, but there is much more to uncover.

“This isn’t the type of thing we want in our democracy. It was a close call,” said retired FBI Agent Vic Hartman.

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The work is underway to figure out not just how but why Saturday’s attack happened.

It’s the part of the investigation that the FBI is leading, and Hartman said the FBI will take multiple paths to find the answer.

“Friends, neighbors, coworkers. Anybody he’s talked to in the last weeks and months maybe years getting his motivations what would cause him to do this you might learn a lot from talking to people,” said Hartman.

The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, is from a suburb of Pittsburgh.

Since he was shot and killed by a sniper, the FBI has searched his home and car. He told his father he was going to a gun range before the shooting. He had no known history of mental illness.

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But now the FBI has gained access to his phone.

“Where did this individual get radicalized from? If he’s going to certain websites, there may be other people going to the same websites and come back with the same conclusions and also come back with bad motivations,” added Hartman.

Crooks had no criminal record. And the FBI said right now it’s confident Crooks acted alone. That is one reason Hartman believes he got as far as he did.

“The lone wolf is a real concern and it’s law enforcement’s biggest concern with domestic terrorism. That’s because with coconspirators they talk and many plots are unraveled as the group of conspirators, somebody leaks to law enforcement, that happens more times than not,” he said.

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