The FBI early Sunday identified the person who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa.
“The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania,” the FBI said in a statement, Fox News reported.
“This remains an active and ongoing investigation, and anyone with information that may assist with the investigation is encouraged to submit photos or videos online at FBI.gov/butler or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.”
Before the FBI announcement, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said the attacker opened fire roughly 10 to 15 minutes after Trump took the stage at the Butler Farm Show Grounds in Pennsylvania, grazing his ear before Secret Service agents surrounded the former president and escorted him off the stage.
One victim died at the scene and two more are critically wounded, Bivens added.
“Law enforcement acted heroically,” he said, noting that they worked “quickly” to “neutralize the threat.”
Law enforcement said they are still investigating a motive.
Bivens also declined to specify what weapon the shooter used, though eyewitnesses have described seeing a man crawling across a roof holding a rifle.
The FBI also deflected questions from reporters about security measures taken by the U.S. Secret Service to secure the area before the rally began. Bivens said the shooter fired from a rooftop outside of that perimeter but declined to give more specifics.
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Former President Bill Clinton personally asked to bring Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell as guests to the Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s 2002 wedding, a move that unsettled Clinton’s own aides, the New York Post reported Thursday.
Clinton requested permission to include Epstein and Maxwell at the royal wedding in Rabat despite neither having any official relationship with the Moroccan royal family, the Post reported. Sources told the outlet that Clinton’s request was viewed internally as inappropriate and has quietly circulated in Democratic circles for more than two decades.
“[Clinton] brought them as guests to a king’s wedding. I mean, it almost sounds made up,” one source familiar with the matter told the outlet. “How many times in your life have you been invited as a guest of a guest at a wedding?”
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Former President Bill Clinton poses with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. (House Oversight Committee)
Clinton traveled to Morocco with Epstein and Maxwell aboard Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” according to the Post. Chelsea Clinton attended separately, and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton remained in Washington due to her schedule.
“[Former First Lady] Hillary [Clinton] was in the Senate, so she couldn’t go. Chelsea very much wanted to go, and the president very much wanted to go,” a second person told the outlet. “The idea that they would take [Epstein] was a head-scratcher. But nonetheless, the Clinton office moved forward and made this request … to bring these two guests, and that’s what happened.”
Once in Rabat, Clinton, Epstein and Maxwell were seated with King Mohammed VI during the black-tie wedding dinner, sources said. At one point, Chelsea Clinton requested a group photograph that included her father, Epstein and Maxwell.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for sex trafficking conspiracy and related offenses. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Their crimes were not publicly known at the time of the wedding.
The Clintons continue to downplay the extent of their past relationship with Epstein, maintaining that they cut off contact with him in 2005, three years before he pleaded guilty to state sex crimes in Florida.
Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña previously told the outlet that Clinton took four trips aboard Epstein’s jet between 2002 and 2003 and denied that Clinton ever visited Epstein’s private island or residences.
“I don’t know how many times we need to say there was travel more than 20 years ago before he was cut off. Apparently, we need to one more time. But nice try,” Ureña said, according to the outlet.
Bill Clinton greets Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the White House in 1993. (White House photo)
Neither of the sources quoted by the New York Post said they believed Clinton was aware of Epstein trafficking or sexually abusing children, but did say the ex-president is downplaying his former links to both Epstein and Maxwell.
The Clinton Foundation did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Both Bill and Hillary are scheduled to give depositions in January to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about their ties to Epstein. The Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Clintons in August, and Committee Chairman James Comer said that if the Clintons didn’t appear for depositions scheduled for Dec. 17 and 18 or arrange to appear for questioning in early January, then contempt charges would be pursued.
Photos released by Oversight Committee Democrats in December show Epstein with prominent figures, including President Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Steve Bannon.
The Department of Justice is expected to release a new trove of documents related to the Epstein investigation Friday.
Rhode Island officials said the suspected gunman in the Brown University mass shooting has been found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, more than 50 miles away in a storage facility in southern New Hampshire.
The shooter was identified as Claudio Manuel Neves-Valente, a 48-year-old Brown student and Portuguese national. Neves-Valente was found dead with a satchel containing two firearms inside in the storage facility, authorities said.
“He took his own life tonight,” Providence police chief Oscar Perez said at a press conference, noting that local, state and federal law officials spent days poring over video evidence, license plate data and hundreds of investigative tips in pursuit of the suspect.
Perez credited cooperation between federal state and local law enforcement officials, as well as the Providence community, which he said provided the video evidence needed to help authorities crack the case.
“The community stepped up,” he said. “It was all about groundwork, public assistance, interviews with individuals, and good old fashioned policing.”
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said the “person of interest” identified by private videos contacted authorities on Wednesday and provided information that led to his whereabouts.
“He blew the case right open, blew it open,” Neronha said. “That person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photograph of that individual.”
“And that’s how these cases sometimes go,” he said. “You can feel like you’re not making a lot of progress. You can feel like you’re chasing leaves and they don’t work out. But the team keeps going.”
The discovery of the suspect’s body caps an intense six-day manhunt spanning several New England states, which put communities from Providence to southern New Hampshire on edge.
“We got him,” FBI special agent in charge for Boston Ted Docks said at Thursday night’s briefing. “Even though the suspect was found dead tonight our work is not done. There are many questions that need to be answered.”
He said the FBI deployed around 500 agents to assist local authorities in the investigation, in addition to offering a $50,000 reward. He says that officials are still looking into the suspect’s motive.
Two students were killed and nine others were injured in the Brown University shooting Saturday, which happened when an undetected gunman entered the Barus and Holley building on campus, where students were taking exams before the holiday break. Providence authorities briefly detained a person in the shooting earlier in the week, but then released them.
Investigators said they are also examining the possibility that the Brown case is connected to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor in his hometown.
An unidentified gunman shot MIT professor Nuno Loureiro multiple times inside his home in Brookline, about 50 miles north of Providence, according to authorities. He died at a local hospital on Tuesday.
Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, was expected to hold a news briefing late Thursday night to discuss the connection with the MIT shooting.
