Thomas Matthew Crooks’ motivation for attempting to assassinate Donald Trump remains unknown, and Rep. Mike Waltz says he is concerned that a foreign entity or other third party was involved in the attack.
Waltz told DailyMail.com that he doesn’t know how federal law enforcement can say with certainty that Crooks acted alone when they can’t answer other questions, such as why he had offshore accounts for encrypted messaging.
The 20-year-old was also able to make multiple explosives using remote detonators, which also raised Waltz’s eyebrows and made him wonder if Crooks was working alone.
As the FBI, U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and Department of Homeland Security investigate the massive security failure, Waltz joins 12 other lawmakers on the House task force also investigating the attempted assassination of Trump.
Rep. Mike Waltz, a member of the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that he is not convinced that shooter Matthew Thomas Crooks acted alone
Thomas Matthew Crooks pictured at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 before he opened fire on the crowd and the former president
I don’t understand, and I don’t have any answers yet that can help me understand how the [Secret] “The service and DHS came out so quickly and said — and I think the FBI did, but I’ll have to check — and said, he was acting alone,” Waltz said while speaking to DailyMail.com at Trump Tower in Chicago on Wednesday. “How do you know that after just a couple of days of investigation?”
“You can’t tell us his motive, but you can tell us he acted alone?” the Florida Republican asked. “You can’t get to those encrypted accounts overseas, but you can tell us he acted alone?”
‘I don’t believe that yet.’
Crooks was shot and killed by the Secret Service after leading a raid on Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
But not before a bullet from his AR-style weapon, legally purchased by his father, grazed the former president’s right ear. And Crooks killed one rallygoer and seriously wounded two others before being taken out.
The FBI also found explosives in Crooks’ car, which was parked at the rally site. And when they searched his parents’ house, where he lived, they found more bombs.
“I don’t know many 19-year-old kids who can make multiple IEDs with a remote detonator,” Waltz told DailyMail.com. “Why hasn’t that been picked up if he’s looking online or buying literature on how to do it?”
Crooks, 20, was shot dead on the spot by the U.S. Secret Service after killing a rallygoer, critically wounding two other supporters and barely missing Trump’s ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Trump was shot in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Secret Service agents forced the former president off the stage with blood streaking his face.
Waltz said, “The deeper we get into it, the more questions I get.”
He also said he would attend an FBI briefing later Wednesday, where he hoped to have more questions answered, but he did not seem optimistic.
Rep. Waltz says that as federal agencies and congressional committees closely investigate the USSS into the attempted assassination, more disturbing details are emerging that make the attack even more ominous.
For example, the revelation that Iran was also plotting to take out former President Trump around the same time that Crooks was carrying out his assassination attempt.
“It’s the dynamics that are created around it that are so disturbing,” Waltz said.
“What I find most disturbing is that there are plans underway in Iran to take out a former presidential candidate, and a Pakistani national has just been arrested after making a down payment for hitmen, and this is barely in the news.”