2024-07-20 10:55:41
Today it became known that before the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the criminal Thomas Crooks searched for pornography on his mobile phone.
The discovery was made by the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico, Virginia, after gaining access to the encrypted phone of 20-year-old Crooks, according to a senior law enforcement source told The Daily Beast.
Sources say the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office initially failed to crack the Android device, so it was flown to Quantico on an FBI plane. The only recent activity on the phone was messages from his parents asking about their son’s whereabouts.
The parents assumed Crooks had picked up a rifle and gone to the shooting range to practice, as he sometimes did. The correspondence began around 1 p.m. and continued throughout the afternoon. The source noted that Crooks was dead by 6 p.m.
The FBI has completed its examination of the phone and is now analyzing the shooter’s laptop and several hard drives found in his bedroom. Agents hope to find answers to why a man with no apparent political motives or known mental illness would attempt to kill Trump.
During the attack, Crooks’ shots missed Trump but hit two protesters, one of whom died. A Secret Service counter-sniper team killed the attacker. During his speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Trump said the Secret Service used one shot to neutralize Crooks.
Near Crooks’ body, agents found four rifle magazines and a remote control that could have triggered explosives found in his car. Law enforcement was not surprised to find pornographic material on Crooks’ phone, noting that such finds are not uncommon among suspects in mass shootings or terrorist activities.
The source recalled that Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza had child abuse images on his device, and many al-Qaeda suspects searched for extreme pornography.
The discovery helps the FBI paint a more complete picture of Crooks, who lived with his parents 40 miles from the Trump rally. He graduated from a community college and worked at a skilled nursing facility near his home.
In addition to pornography, Crooks searched for information about Trump, Joe Biden, the Democratic National Convention, and members of the British royal family. CNN reported that Crooks also searched for information about Ethan Crumble, the mass shooter who killed four students at his Michigan high school in 2021, and the prosecution of Crumble’s parents, who were sentenced to 10 years in prison for improperly storing a gun.
Earlier, “Cursor” reported that the WSJ published new details about the shooter. The person accused of attempting to kill Trump, several hours before the attack, controlled a drone over the site of the rally.