Trump agrees to give FBI interview to victim after assassination attempt

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has agreed to participate in a victim interview with the FBI focused on his assassination attempt, an official with the office told reporters Monday.

The interview with Trump would be consistent with any interview the department would conduct with any crime victim under any circumstances, an official said.

The FBI investigation found that attempted murderer Thomas Matthew Crooks was a “highly intelligent” man and also “a loner”, with few friends and acquaintances outside of his family, and had a growing interest in guns.

His reason is not yet known. The FBI conducted hundreds of interviews and requested information about his online accounts, including gaming accounts, from dozens of companies, an official said. His search history included seeking information about the attempted assassination of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico earlier this year, as well as mass shootings and power plants, an official said. Last week, the FBI revealed that Crooks had researched “how far was Oswald from Kennedy?” about the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald, about a week before the attack.

The FBI discovered that the ladder Crooks purchased before the shooting was not taken to the Trump rally, although authorities found a bloody receipt on his body. The thieves appear to have used a drone before the attack, although no recorded footage was found on the drone, the FBI said.

Crooks fired eight shots just 25-30 seconds after a local police officer tried to confront him on the roof. As NBC News previously reported, citing the FBI and authorities, the officer was raised above the roof line by a colleague and Crooks pointed his gun at the officer just before shooting.

The thieves appeared to have carefully planned the attack before the campaign rally and worked to keep their plans secret, an official said during a briefing with reporters on Monday, more than two weeks after the attempt on Trump’s life in 13 July.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said Monday that the agency has been working around the clock on the investigation and that while the agency does not typically share regular updates on ongoing investigations, FBI officials felt that doing so It here was important to the American public.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last week after the attack and following a controversial House hearing into the attempt. The Senate will conduct its own hearing this week with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

Abbate said the agency was collecting facts but was not focused on identifying failures on the part of authorities that day, saying that type of analysis was best left to others.

“The entire FBI is committed to uncovering the real facts, the truth about this attack on former President Trump and the murder of Mr. Comperatore and also the injuries to others,” Abbate said, referring to Corey Comperatore, a participant in the rally who was killed in the attack. Two others were injured.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress last week that “there are questions about whether or not it was a bullet or shrapnel” that struck Trump’s ear during the assassination attempt, adding fuel to conspiracy theories about the shooting.

FBI agent Kevin Rojek, who runs the Pittsburgh office, said Monday that Trump was struck by a bullet, either a whole or fragmented bullet, echoing a statement the agency released Friday following Wray’s testimony at the Congress.

Rojek said Crooks appeared to have “made significant efforts to conceal his activities.”

Rojek said Crooks appeared to be “a loner,” and another official said there was no indication Crooks had any mental health treatment or institutionalization.

The FBI had difficulty accessing some of Crooks’ accounts because of his use of encrypted apps, a bureau official said.

“Encryption has been a challenge for us in this investigation,” said FBI official Bobby Wells.