The FBI has found a social media account featuring antisemitic and anti-immigration comments that investigators believe to be associated with the gunman who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, a senior bureau official said Tuesday.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told members of Congress that the account could be linked to the shooter, Thomas Crooks, but he cautioned that officials are still working to verify the account's authenticity.
"There were over 700 comments posted; some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature," Abbate told a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.
The note of caution about the account's authenticity stems, in part, from confusion about a gaming account that the FBI had at one point attributed to Crooks but later turned out to be a hoax.
The details about the account came as lawmakers questioned Abbate and the acting director of the Secret Service about security failures and other details of the July 13 shooting targeting Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, in Butler, Pa. Crooks was able to fire eight shots from the roof of a nearby building; a bullet or bullet fragment struck Trump, killed a person at the rally, and injured two others before Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Abbate said the account dates to the 2019-2020 time period, when Crooks would have been 15 or 16 years old. It could provide a glimpse into Crooks' thinking, which has proven elusive as the FBI said the shooter generally had few social contacts and little social media presence. It wasn't clear from Abbate's comment what social media account it was on.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., blamed federal officials for not talking more to the press and providing regular updates on their investigations.
"You're a black hole. You lose the support of the American public because people don't believe you're being direct with them," he said.
In addition to questions about the shooter, lawmakers also slammed the Secret Service's security gaps. The Secret Service’s acting director, Ronald Rowe, said security at the July 13 rally was a failure on multiple levels, and he had implemented changes to security to ensure another shooting doesn't happen again.
Rowe said he retraced Crooks' steps on the roof to try to understand how he was able to get a shot at Trump and what went wrong.
"What I saw made me ashamed," Rowe told lawmakers. "As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured."
Rowe also blamed communication silos between Secret Service agents and local law enforcement. Reports being discussed on a text chain did not get shared with Secret Service agents on the scene: “Nothing about man on the roof, nothing about man with a gun, none of that information ever made it over our net," he told the hearing.
He said changes to security procedures include using more drones to help detect threats on rooftops, and ensuring every security plan for events is vetted by multiple supervisors.
Rowe stepped in to run the Secret Service after the previous director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned from her job last week after she faced withering criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for not being able to fully answer their questions about the attempted assassination.
Some Republican senators at the hearing made it clear that Cheatle's resignation wasn't enough to assuage their concerns.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, urged the agency to fire more people, while Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., accused the Secret Secret of either "incompetence or some type of a cultural problem" — something the acting director disputed.
"I think you would agree with me that there were multiple individual and institutional failures the day of this assassination attempt," Marshall told Rowe.
Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The acting Secret Service director was in the hot seat in a joint hearing before two Senate committees today. They're probing the assassination attempt on former President Trump. Acting director Ronald Rowe recently climbed on the roof in Pennsylvania, where the shooter fired multiple shots at Trump.
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RONALD ROWE: What I saw made me ashamed. I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.
CHANG: NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh covered today's hearing and joins us now from the Capitol. Hi, Deirdre.
DEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: So I know that motive has been a huge question in this case. Did the investigators offer any new details or any new theories today?
WALSH: They still don't have a motive, but the FBI deputy director, Paul Abbate, today revealed they have found a social media account potentially tied to Thomas Crooks, the shooter. It has about 700 posts from the 2019-2020 time frame. Here's how he described those posts.
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PAUL ABBATE: Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes, to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature.
WALSH: They're still confirming these are tied directly to Crooks. They're also looking at other apps he was on. It is worth noting that investigators recently did find a gaming account initially said was the shooters. It turned out not to be. You know, this is an ongoing investigation, Ailsa.
CHANG: Yeah. Well, we heard Rowe admit his shame about what had happened. Did he get into how security failed so immensely that day?
WALSH: He tried to. The acting director, Rowe, repeatedly talked about local law enforcement agents spotting crooks on the scene but said the details about his movements were siloed, stuck in a channel. It was actually a text chain that only local law enforcement agents and snipers were in. Rowe said if that information was shared more quickly over police radios, the Secret Service could have acted. Rowe said they were told about a suspicious person outside the rally but not where he was or what he was doing in the minutes leading up to him actually firing.
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ROWE: Nothing about man on the roof, nothing about man with a gun. None of that information ever made it over our net.
WALSH: He was suggesting it was ultimately local law enforcement's failure to put somebody on top of that roof that allowed Crooks to get up there.
CHANG: Was there talk about security changes going forward?
WALSH: He said they're already making some changes. Rowe said more people need to review site plans before these types of events to avoid what he called tunnel vision. Part of the challenge in the investigation that's going on now is that Secret Service radio communications were not recorded at that Butler rally in Pennsylvania. The ones from local law enforcement radios were. Going forward, he said all Secret Service radio traffic is going to be recorded. He also talked about, going forward, law enforcement needs to be on radios, not text chains, to share information in real time.
CHANG: That's a good point. Well, did the senators seem satisfied with today's testimony?
WALSH: You know, not all of them. There were really some very tense exchanges between the acting Secret Service director and Republicans on these committees asking why more people haven't been fired at the Secret Service. Rowe said he's lost sleep over what happened, but he stressed he didn't want to have any rush to fire more Secret Service officials until this investigation's really thoroughly completed. We also know the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned already last week. But it's become clear that that's not really enough for these senators that are doing these investigations, and we're hearing about more of these missteps.
CHANG: That is NPR's Deirdre Walsh. Thank you, Deirdre.
WALSH: Thanks, Ailsa.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIWA SAVAGE SONG, "LOST TIME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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