Report: Trump assassin wannabe maintained 3 encrypted message accounts overseas

Congressional investigator describes it as 'strange' that 20-year-old would work on platforms in Belgium, Germany and New Zealand

Aug 22, 2024 - 16:28
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Report: Trump assassin wannabe maintained 3 encrypted message accounts overseas
Thomas Crooks
Thomas Crooks
Thomas Crooks

The 20-year-old sniper who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last month, now dead at the hands of police, was using a multitude of overseas messaging apps – all encrypted, according to a new report.

The Daily Wire said it was Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who is on a congressional committee investigating that planned violence, who reported the unusual aspect of the online life of Thomas Matthew Crooks.

“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aide need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad, where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into? That’s a question I’ve had since day one,” he explained to reporters at the time.

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The report noted the retired Green Beret then “ripped the FBI and Secret Service for not releasing more information from the investigations into the attempted assassination.”

Crooks, from the roof of an unguarded building adjacent to Trump’s rally, actually got off multiple shots at Trump, with one grazing his ear.

Trump was blanketed by Secret Service but immediately got up, raising his fist in in the air and shouting, “Fight, fight, fight,” in what almost certainly will become one of the most recognized photographic images of the decade.

Waltz explained the investigators have not “learned that much” about Crooks’ accounts, but he did reveal they were based in Belgium, Germany and New Zealand.

The New York Post said the apps allow for text messages to travel through and be encrypted so that only can be read on a recipient’s device.

“They need to be releasing information as they come across it because this wasn’t an isolated incident,” he said. “The threats are continually Iran’s threats.”

There have been confirmed reports that Iran was trying to orchestrate an attempt of Trump’s life just at the Time Crooks’ fired his shots.

The congressional committee has 13 members, including seven Republicans, and already has questioned leaders of the Secret Service and the FBI over the security failures that day.

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Fibis I am just an average American. My teen years were in the late 70s and I participated in all that that decade offered. Started working young, too young. Then I joined the Army before I graduated High School. I spent 25 years in, mostly in Infantry units. Since then I've worked in information technology positions all at small family owned companies. At this rate I'll never be a tech millionaire. When I was young I rode horses as much as I could. I do believe I should have been a cowboy. I'm getting in the saddle again by taking riding lessons and see where it goes.