Transcript
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
And now we're going to hear more about the FBI's investigation into the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Kenneth Gray was a special agent with the agency for 24 years. He's now a senior lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven. Welcome to the program.
KENNETH GRAY: Good morning, and glad to be with you.
RASCOE: So talk to us about the steps the FBI might take for an investigation of this scope.
GRAY: Sure. Secret Service is responsible for the protection of the president. They got the president out - or the candidate out of the area. Now it falls upon the FBI to be the lead federal agency to do the investigation. They are working in conjunction with the Pennsylvania State police because there was also a murder at this event and two additional people critically injured. And so the bureau and the state police will be having troopers and agents go out to do interviews of individuals. They are focusing this morning on the house. They will be looking at the computer within the house. They will be doing interviews...
RASCOE: And by the house, you mean the house of...
GRAY: Of the suspect.
RASCOE: ...Of the suspect, yes.
GRAY: Correct. They will be doing interviews. They will be grabbing the computer to do a forensic analysis of that computer. They will be seizing any type of evidence at the residence that may link the shooter to this event. In addition, there is also social media. Social media may have postings by the shooter that will potentially give an indication of why he did this. Therefore, the bureau will be freezing those accounts, reaching out to the different social media venues, freezing the accounts and getting copies of any postings that the person may have done. There's going to be a lot of steps here being done.
RASCOE: Well, how long might this investigation take? And will any potential security failures at the rally itself be a part of the investigation?
GRAY: So the FBI's investigation will be concentrating in on the shooter and the event itself. Secret Service will have to do their investigation as to what went wrong as far as their protection detail goes. This investigation, the criminal investigation - it will not result in a court case because of the fact that the shooter is dead. And so the end result will more likely be a report as opposed to some type of criminal procedure. But nonetheless, this is something that's going to take weeks as opposed to days and maybe even months.
RASCOE: What kind of scrutiny do you expect the FBI to be under as this plays out? Does the FBI have a role in trying to, you know, suss out people who may be a threat to political candidates?
GRAY: So if the bureau was in receipt of information showing this person was a potential threat, then that will be a problem for the bureau. That's always a concern is that a shooter in these cases are previously known to law enforcement. But I'm not saying that happened. I'm saying that that could be a potential problem.
RASCOE: How does this shooting change the FBI's thinking, whether it's, like, security for conventions or just preparing for more political violence in general?
GRAY: Department of Homeland Security is responsible for national security, special events. The RNC, the DNC fall under their security responsibilities, but the FBI will be working with DHS on trying to ensure that an event like this does not happen again.
RASCOE: That's Kenneth Gray, a former FBI special agent. Thank you so much for joining us.
GRAY: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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