Donald Trump gunman researched John F Kennedy assassination, FBI director says

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a House committee about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

FBI director Christopher Wray told officials on Wednesday that a laptop tied to the Trump rally gunman showed a Google search for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?”.

The question is in reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooter who killed President John F Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

It is believed that the gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, carried out the Google search on July 6, just a week before the assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee heard a collection of new details from Mr Wray about the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents as he is helped off the stage following the shooting (Gene J Puskar/AP)

The FBI’s investigation has thrust the bureau into a political maelstrom months before the presidential election, with officials and the public pressing for details about what may have motivated Crooks.

The attempt on Mr Trump’s life was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.

A detailed timeline of Crooks’ movements and online activity has been formed by the FBI, but the precise motive — or why Mr Trump was singled out — remains elusive, Mr Wray said.

“A lot of the usual repositories of information have not yielded anything notable in terms of motive or ideology,” Mr Wray said.

He did note that Crooks had grown interested in public officials — besides Mr Trump, Crooks also had photos on his phone of Democratic President Joe Biden and other prominent figures — and in the days before the shooting had appeared particularly consumed by Mr Trump.

About two hours prior to the shooting, Crooks had allegedly flown a drone about 180 meters from the rally stage where Mr Trump would later stand, Mr Wray said.

He added that Crooks used the device to livestream and watch footage.

FBI director Christopher Wray (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

The use of the drone so close to the rally site just hours before Mr Trump took the stage adds to the questions about the security lapses preceding the event.

Mr Wray pledged that the FBI would “leave no stone unturned” in its investigation.

“I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated threat environment, and tragically the Butler County assassination attempt is another example — a particularly heinous and public one — of what I’ve been talking about,” the FBI director said.

The hearing had been scheduled well before the shooting, as part of the committee’s routine oversight of the FBI and the Justice Department, but questions about the shooting dominated the session.

The FBI has said it is investigating the shooting, which killed one rallygoer and seriously injured two others, as an act of domestic terrorism and an attempted assassination.

Mr Trump’s campaign said the presumptive Republican nominee was doing “fine” after the shooting, which the former president said pierced the upper part of his right ear.