Former US President Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as part of its investigation into his assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13.
The FBI said in a call with media Monday that this would be “a standard victim interview that we would do for any other crime victim.”
“We want to know what they saw,” FBI special agent Kevin Rojek was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, new details about the assassination attempt emerged through a text message between local security units that Republican Senator Chuck Grassley received, the New York Times reported. According to the message, a local law enforcement officer spotted the would-be killer, Thomas Matthews Crooks, 30 minutes earlier than previously reported by other officials.
According to text messages, Thomas Crooks was seen walking around the area where counter-snipers were positioned 90 minutes before the shooting.
According to a Times report, at approximately 4:26 p.m., an alert countersniper quickly alerted his colleagues to Crooks’ presence. Notably, Crooks had parked his vehicle near the counter-snipers’ vehicles and was seen sitting at a picnic table adjacent to the warehouse. This location was just outside the fenced perimeter of the grounds where former President Trump was scheduled to appear later that day.
The counter-sniper told his colleagues that Thomas Crooks knew they were there and that he had seen him leave with his rifle.
One of the countersnipers took a photo of the crooks and that picture was shared in a group chat. At about 5:38 p.m. another message went out among local authorities, saying they should notify the Secret Services.
“The kids are learning around the building we’re in. I think it’s A.G.R. I saw him with a rangefinder looking at the stage. FYI. If you want to alert the S.S. snipers, I didn’t see him,” The New York Times quoted a text accompanying Crooks’ photos in its report.
By 6:11 p.m., “the kid” would lie dead on the roof of a warehouse attached to a building guarded by counter-snipers deployed after being shot by intelligence services for trying to assassinate the former president.
Text messages showed that the 20-year-old shooter had been under police suspicion 90 minutes before the shooting, as opposed to about 60 minutes before the incident, as previously discussed in a congressional hearing.