Law&Crime Sidebar - 7 Major Developments in the Donald Trump Assassination Attempt Investigation

Episode Date: July 28, 2024

Multiple agencies, committees, and task forces are investigating the shooting of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 16th. The Republican nominee’s ear was inju...red, but one civilian was killed and two others were gravely wounded. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down everything we know about the shooter, the Secret Service’s response, and the push for answers.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:01:16 Do we agree with that? The building was outside of the perimeter on the day of the visit. But again, that is one of the things that during the investigation, we want to take a look at. From revealing new details about the suspected shooter's actions to a local law enforcement official's comments regarding security failures to new video showing an interaction with Secret Service, this week has been chock full of updates
Starting point is 00:01:40 in the story of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. We are going to break down what you need to know right now. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. It's been quite a week in the attempted Donald Trump assassination story. What did we learn? What did we not learn? What answers do we have?
Starting point is 00:02:03 What do we not know at this point? We wanted to give you a full overview on some of the updates in this story from this week and what you need to know. So what do we know? Well, we know that authorities have IDed the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. They say he fired approximately eight shots, wounding former President Donald Trump in the ear, critically injuring two others, David Dutch, who has been released from the hospital, and James Copenhagen, who at the time of this recording, is in stable but serious condition. And of course, we also have the killing of Corey Comparatore, who is reportedly shielding his family
Starting point is 00:02:38 from the gunfire. These gunshots that erupted at a pro-Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. And we know that the shooter was immediately neutralized by a counter-sniper team as soon as those shots rang out. Now, the FBI is investigating the actual shooting, the shooter, his plans, his motivations, and we're going to get into that because there are some very, very interesting updates that we learned this week. But what about the main question? How did this guy take advantage of the vulnerabilities of the Secret Service security measures? How did he get on top of the roof of a nearby building? It's called the AGR building, set up an AR-15-style rifle and
Starting point is 00:03:18 open fire. And what complicates this is that there is reporting that both spectators and law enforcement saw crooks beforehand, that he was labeled a suspicious person, with even some reporting saying that he was classified as a threat, that they saw him with a range finder, that he was seen scaling the building, that Donald Trump's campaign was denied security resources before. So there's a lot of issues here. And right now, the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General has opened up several probes, while Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorcas appointed an independent review panel to look into this as well. And then, of course, we have the FBI, who, as I mentioned, is looking into the shooter and the shooting. But if we were
Starting point is 00:03:58 looking for answers from former, former director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheedle, emphasis on former, you will not be in luck. Why? Because look at what happened at the start of this week, when she testified in front of the House Oversight Committee. She was subpoenaed to testify, maybe give some explanations about how there was a lapse in security protocol. What happened, right? Answers we all want to know. Look at what happened. The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13th, we failed. As a director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency. Let's start with the building that the shooter used to shoot President Trump from.
Starting point is 00:04:48 At any point Saturday, did the Secret Service have an agent on top of that roof? Sir, I'm sure, as you can imagine, that we are just nine days out from this incident, and there's still an ongoing investigation. And so I want to make sure that any information that we are providing to you is factual. Why did the Secret Service not, can you answer why the Secret Service didn't place a single agent on the roof? We are still looking into the advanced process and the decisions that were made. Okay, okay. Wasn't that building within the perimeter that should be secured?
Starting point is 00:05:26 Do we agree with that? The building was outside of the perimeter on the day of the visit. But again, that is one of the things that during the investigation we want to take a look at. That building was, I believe, 500, how far away was that building from the president? It was approximately 200 yards. 200 yards. Now, the individual used an AR-15 in order to act out his assassination attempt. An AR-15 has a range of about 4 to 600 yards.
Starting point is 00:06:04 My question is why does the Secret Service perimeter, Why is the Secret Service protective perimeter shorter than one of the most popular semi-automatic weapons in the United States? There are a number of weapons out there with a number of ranges. Again, an advance was completed, the determination of the perimeter. I'm not going to speak to specifics, but there are a number of factors that are taken into account when we determine our perimeter. What went wrong? What would you say? Again, knowing that we're nine days out, I would say, as I have said from the very outset,
Starting point is 00:06:46 I accept responsibility for this tragedy. We are going to look into how this happened, and we are going to take corrective action to ensure that it never happens again. Director Chito, have you read the intelligence of the generalized threat to Donald Trump by Iran as a result of their desire to retaliate for the killing of Salmonelli? Excuse me, Salamani. I have. Director Chedal, was it sufficient for the Iranian threat that you said you have read the intelligence briefings for?
Starting point is 00:07:18 Yes, I do believe it was. Director Chito is an Iranian assassin more capable than a 20-year-old? Sir, I think we've acknowledged that there was gaps and a failure that day. Have you visited the site? No, I have not. Nine days and you have not visited the site. So you said, do you remember in an ABC interview you did that you didn't have people on the roof of the AGR building because you were worried about safety because of the slope?
Starting point is 00:07:45 I recall that statement. Does the Secret Service have written policy you can share with us about slope roofs? No. Okay. So why did you act like there was one? Because isn't your practice the comment on enormous events of enormous national implications when you're ignorant of the facts? That's rhetorical Ma'am up here
Starting point is 00:08:07 He's on the roof He's right Right here Right on the root She's hearing up now It happened Ma'am That doesn't look like suspicious behavior
Starting point is 00:08:22 That looks like threatening behavior To me And the rally wasn't pause At that point either, correct? I can tell you as I stated earlier, sir That the moment that the shift surrounding the president were aware of an actual threat. That's a threat right there.
Starting point is 00:08:39 The guy's on the roof and everybody's yelling at him. Yes. And directing the officer's attention to him. The rally was not paused at that point, correct? We are currently still combing through communications. Have any employees been disciplined for their role in Butler PA incident? No, sir, not at this time. I am asking those questions.
Starting point is 00:09:02 No employee has been disciplined and no employee has been placed in any position that would place their job in jeopardy, nor their standing in the agency. We are still in the process of interviewing people. That's not what I asked. You're the person that runs the place. You're the person that knows right from wrong, good from bad. You've had a number of days. And now you come before this committee, knowing you're going to be before us, and you've got to sluff. off to someone else. I think that's a pretty good sampling of what went down. Look, we're talking incredibly insufficient answers for these lawmakers and arguably too for the American people. And yes, there are ongoing investigations that she doesn't want to jeopardize or say something
Starting point is 00:09:48 that could be contradicted and yes, she may not have the information and yes, she doesn't want to reveal information that could pose a security risk. But really, no explanation as to what went down? Now, she takes responsibility, but we can't tell you why this happened. Hey, guys, I want to thank you for coming to us as we break down this Trump shooting coverage. And look, one of the reasons we're able to bring you episodes like this is because of the support we get from our incredible sponsors. And I want to call one out, Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Love talking about them because if you should find yourself in that position where you're hurt and you need legal representation,
Starting point is 00:10:23 Morgan and Morgan may be who you want in your corner because they're specialists in this area. They have secured verdicts and settlements in the multi-millions across this country. They also make it so easy for their clients because from starting your claim to uploading documents, to talk to your legal team, it can all be done from your smartphone. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. It got worse, especially because Cheatel and her spokesperson had made prior comments to the media and arguably seemed more forthcoming about details to the media than this committee. But those comments, as you heard, were problematic because they were either contradicted or backtracked,
Starting point is 00:11:07 including about whether Donald Trump's campaign had requested more security assets. Director, were you guessing or lying? The day after President Trump is shot, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliami said, quote, the assertion that a member of the former president's security team requested additional security resources that the U.S. Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false. The next day, Secretary Maurekis said that is an unequivocally false assertion we had not received any request for additional security measures that were rebuffed. But five days later, the Washington Post said this.
Starting point is 00:11:44 Top officials repeatedly rejected requests from Donald Trump's security detail for more personnel. The next day, the New York Times said this. Mr. Gugliami acknowledged that the Secret Service had turned down some request for additional federal security assets for Mr. Trump's detail. So which is it? Because both statements can't be true. Were you guessing or lying when you said you didn't turn down requests from President Trump's detail? Neither, sir, and I appreciate the question. What were you doing because those statements don't jive? So what I can tell you is that for the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied. As far as requests...
Starting point is 00:12:27 Well, maybe they got tired of asking. Maybe you turned them down so darn much. They said, not worth asking. How many times did you turn them down ahead of that? I think that it is important to distinguish between what some people may view as a denial of an asset or a request. Well, is Mr. Gugliami, your spokesperson? He said he acknowledged the Secret Service had turned down some requests. I'm asking how many? A denial of a request does not equal a vulnerability. Well, tell me what it is. There are a number of ways that threats and risks can be mitigated with a number of different assets,
Starting point is 00:13:06 whether that be through personnel, whether that be through technology or other resources. Well, tell the committee which it was. They asked for additional help in some form or another. You told them no. How many times did you tell them no and what did you tell them no, too? Again, I cannot speak to specific incidents, but I can tell you in general terms, the Secret Service is judicious with their resources based on... What does some request mean? How many times? Some indicate... request is plural. So more than once, they asked for additional help, and you turned them down. What they asked for and how many times did you turn them down? Pretty basic questions. So again, without having all of the details in front of me, sir, what I can tell you is that there are times...
Starting point is 00:13:50 You didn't get briefed on how many times you turned down the Trump detail when the... they asked for additional help? I'm sorry. You didn't get briefed on that before you came to this hearing, knowing you were going to get asked that question? What I can tell you is it in generic terms, when people, when details make a request, there are times that there are alternate ways
Starting point is 00:14:08 to cover off on that threat or that risk. But that's not what he said. And you know what? It got really bad from there. Both sides of the aisle today have asked for your resignation. Would you like to use my five minutes to draft your resignation letter? Yes or no. No, thank you. I have no idea how my statement got out.
Starting point is 00:14:28 Well, that's bull's. You're full of shit today. You're just being completely dishonest. Mr. Chairman, I want to... Mr. Chairman, I want to continue. We have to maintain decorum in this committee no matter how upset we get. Have you provided any and all memos to this committee that we've asked you on July 15th? Have you provided all memorandums within the Secret Service? I would have to get back to you on that. That is a no. You are being dishonest or lying.
Starting point is 00:14:53 I just, you're being dishonest here with this committee. These are important questions that the American people want answers to, and you're just, you're just dodging and talking around it in generalities. You're obfuscating today is shameful, and you should be fired immediately and go back to Garden Doritos. Mr. Chamon, I'll go back. Well, she didn't get fired. No, she resigned. Yes, she resigned the very next day after this testimony. In a letter to Secret Service staff, she writes, quote, as I've stated, the Secret Service.
Starting point is 00:15:23 service will move forward with our investigatory and protective mission in a steadfast manner, we do not retreat from challenge. However, I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission. In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director. Now, Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Road, Jr., has been appointed as temporary director as the Biden administration looks for a permanent replacement. So while we didn't get much answers from Director Cheadle during her testimony. This week, we learned that the lack of consensus amongst different agencies and authorities continues. No one seems to be on the same
Starting point is 00:16:04 page about what happened that day. For example, this week, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris testified during a House Homeland Security hearing and explained how two local police officers with the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, say sniper team, left posts in a building that was overlooking the roof where the shooter ended up setting up. Why would they leave these posts? Well, they were apparently looking for crooks because he had been IDed as a suspicious person. Remember, they saw him with a rangefinder.
Starting point is 00:16:36 And Paris said a text thread was even going on about this. And Paris also said that this information about a suspicious person was relayed to the Secret Service. But going back to that comment about the abandoning of these posts, Butler County DA, Richard Goldinger said Paris's account about the officers leaving that area is not accurate. He said only one officer left that staging position. Golddinger said in a statement, quote, both ESU officers moved within the building attempting to keep eyes on Crooks. One of the officers observed Crooks sitting on a picnic table at the front of the building from his location
Starting point is 00:17:12 on the second floor of the building. Crooks then ran off carrying a backpack. At this point, that officer ran out of the building attempting to keep eyes on Crooks. until other law enforcement arrived. The other officer remained in the building on the second floor. The officer who ran out of the building could not locate crooks and he returned to the building. Both officers then heard shots fired. And Goldinger also said that neither officer could see crooks on the other building due to
Starting point is 00:17:39 the visual angle they had from their location to Crook's location. And despite the DA refuting the commissioner's account, Lieutenant Adam Reed, who is the Pennsylvania State Police Director of Communication. said that they are standing by, Commissioner Paris's testimony. Paris, by the way, also testified, as we have seen from reporting, that a municipal officer did, in fact, scale the roof and confront Mr. Crooks before the shooting, but Crooks had pointed his weapon at that officer who was actually dangling from the roof and the officer ended up dropping to the ground.
Starting point is 00:18:13 Paris indicated that Crooks was on the roof approximately three minutes, but only a few seconds passed between when the officer came face to face with the suspected shooter and when he opened fire at Trump and others. And you know what complicates this even further? Senator Josh Howley informed Homeland Security about a whistleblower who reportedly came forward saying there was supposed to be at least one officer on the roof where Crooks was located, but the officer abandoned that post because of the heat that day. And therefore, that's why you had security position inside the building and not outside. And while Director Cheadle has said that overall security that day was the responsibility of the Secret Service, there is reporting that they assign
Starting point is 00:18:58 local law enforcement to sweep and secure the buildings on the outer perimeters, but Butler County Sheriff, Mike Sloop, came out and told local media, that building and grounds were not the Sheriff's office responsibility, and I do not have firsthand knowledge of who was supposed to be where. So still, hard to get a sense of what is going on and what happened that day. No wonder we have multiple investigations happening. And I mean, in that vein, by the way, new body cam footage came out this week. It's been released by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, and it shows an interaction between local law enforcement and secret service as they hover over the dead body of the shooter. This is, again, after the shooting when he was killed, and you can hear them trying to make sense
Starting point is 00:19:41 of what's going on. All right. So we don't know. So this is the guy that are, that they sent the, yes. Beaver County sniper seen and sent the pictures out. This is him. Okay. All right. We're right. We're right there, obviously. Got it. So the bike in the back. Is he on that bike? We don't know. We don't know. So we're just treating that as suspicious device. One second. I believe the sniper that seen these incentive pictures is right inside of building. Michelle, is Greg in there? All right. So if you go to that window that's open and yell for Greg. That's the sniper that sent the original pitchers and seen him come from the bike and set the book back down and then lost sight of them. Okay. He's the one that sent the pictures on. I don't know if you got the same ones I did. I think I did, yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:22 He's like, got his glasses on and he's, uh... And we have somebody detained, correct? That I don't know. Our guy that was just up here told me that there's a guy detained, he's the owner of the bike. And I said, no, that's the owner of the bike. Yeah. Basically, when I got... We've been up here, so we wouldn't know that.
Starting point is 00:20:41 here so we wouldn't know that information. We just hold ass we got over here. Got it. I'm trying to get clear information to relay back to the DC. We have one shooter, deceased. I think we have three victims in the crowd. Do you guys hear that too? That I'm not sure. So I heard one deceased, two life flighting. I know two helicopters take off. Yeah. Okay. So that seems to support the reporting that a sniper from a local team had taken a picture of Crooks and sent it to Secret Service Command before the shooting. And you also hear about a bike because it's been reported that crooks may have used a bike to scope out this rally area. And as we talk about what could come from this shooting, the New York Post reported this week that the Secret Service is advising the Trump campaign to no longer hold
Starting point is 00:21:31 outdoor events due to security concerns. And apparently, they may now actually be looking for indoor venues moving forward. But I would say the biggest highlight this week in terms of actual information, actual answers regarding the shooting was when FBI director Christopher Ray testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee. And this is important because his agency, as I said, is looking into the shooter, the planning, the motivations, whether anyone helped him, how he conducted the shooting. Now, to be clear about this, the FBI is not looking into the security lapses, the security issues, or the failures. That's not the responsibility of the FBI. Sure, they're going to interview
Starting point is 00:22:12 law enforcement that day, and I'm sure they'll get an understanding of what happened, but that is not the focus of their probe. And he also said, look, there's information that he can share, and there's other information he can't share, because the investigation is ongoing, facts change, the context of certain things change. He doesn't want to say one thing, and it turns out to not be true. And also, you don't want to taint an ongoing investigation. Having said that, we learned a lot. For example, we heard more about crooks using a drone. We have recovered a drone that the shooter appears to have used. It's being exploited and analyzed by the FBI lab. The drone was recovered in his vehicle. So at the time of the shooting, the drone was in his
Starting point is 00:22:57 vehicle with the controller. In addition, our investigation has uncovered. Do you know what time of day he flew it? And if he flew it on the day, So in addition, it appears that around 3.50 p.m. 4 o'clock in that window on the day of the shooting, that the shooter was flying the drone around the area. About 11 minutes. I want to be clear, but when I say the area, not over the stage and that part of the area itself. I would say about 200 yards, give or take away from that. We think, but we do not know. So again, this is one of these things that's qualified
Starting point is 00:23:39 because of our ongoing review, that he was live streaming, viewing the footage from that again, about 11 minutes in around the 350, 4 o'clock PM range. Two hours before, he's flying a drone in the vicinity of the route. About 200 yards away, yes. Okay, that's important information.
Starting point is 00:23:56 What about the bombs that we've heard about in the shooter's car? So again, the FBI lab is exploiting those explosive devices. There were, we've recovered three devices, two in his vehicle and one back in his residence. Are these what you would call, your experts would call sophisticated operations? Or this, I mean, I think, I don't know, that's what I've been told by people who have some understanding of this area. Yeah, I think it's, we've seen more sophisticated and less. I would say these are relatively, again, keyword relatively crude devices themselves,
Starting point is 00:24:33 but they did have the ability to be detonated remotely. And so to that point, in addition to the two devices that we recovered out of his vehicle, there were receivers for those two explosive devices with the devices. And then on the shooter himself, when he was killed by law enforcement, he had a transmitter with him.
Starting point is 00:24:59 Now, I do want to add one important point here was at the moment, it looks to us again ongoing review and I can't say that too many times at a moment it looks like because of the on-off position on the receivers that that if he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof it would not have worked and that wasn't all one of the reasons why crooks may have been able to move around freely and no one knew he was carrying a weapon was because of this The weapon had a collapsible stock, which could explain why it might have been less easy for people to observe, you know, because one of the things that we're finding is people have observed him, the first people to observe him with the weapon were when he was already on the roof. And we haven't yet found anybody with firsthand observation of him with the weapon walking around beforehand. So that doesn't mean he wasn't, obviously, but the collapsible stock. is potentially a very significant feature that might be relevant to that.
Starting point is 00:26:06 Did he have a scope? I believe so, but I just, as I sit here right now, I don't remember. And we also learned about how the shooter got onto the roof. You see, Director Ray says that the ladder that Crook supposedly bought at a Home Depot was not found at the scene, which, of course, is strange. So you might be asking, how did he get onto the roof? Where's the ladder? Well, listen to what Ray had to say.
Starting point is 00:26:32 say about that. We've now believed that the subject climbed onto the roof using some mechanical equipment on the ground and vertical piping on the side of the AGR building. In other words, we do not believe he used a ladder to get up there. Another big question? Motive. Why would Crooks, who seemingly had no criminal history, no reportedly outward political or religious ideologies. Why would he do this? Well, what did Ray have to say about that? The press has reported
Starting point is 00:27:07 that he had pictures, not only of Mr. Trump, but of Mr. Biden and various other members' political figures. Can you discern, was there an element of, you know, mainly Republicans, maybe Democrats, was it all over the board? Can you enlighten us about that? Well, this is a place where it's particularly important for me to reiterate the caveat that I've included before because in this instance in particular, we have a lot of legal process out for additional accounts and things like that that the shooter is associated with. So we're hoping to learn more and we're still exploiting a number of the digital devices. I think it's fair to say that we do not yet have a clear picture of his motive. And I think it's important for me to explain because I understand
Starting point is 00:27:57 of course why everybody wants to know the answers to those questions. Often in an investigation from interviewing people that the subject was in close contact with, looking at the individual's social media accounts, messages, often things, physical evidence in the person's residence. You might see a manifesto, things like that. We're not seeing that yet, but we are digging in heart because this is one of these central questions for us. What I can say is that the shooter appears to have done a lot of searches of public figures in general. But so far, we're seeing kind of news articles and things like that.
Starting point is 00:28:39 And so the images that have been reported about, really what we're talking about there are when you do a news search of an article, the image appears in the cache as opposed to like a search for that specific individual. And that's important because there had been a conversation about whether or not he was just targeting. Donald Trump and his followers or other people in politics and law enforcement. And we also got information about Mr. Crook's laptop, and more specifically, a very eerie and illuminating purported search. So one of the things that I can share here today that has not been shared yet is that we've just in the last couple of days found that from our review, to your point about devices,
Starting point is 00:29:23 his analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6th, he did a Google search for quote, how far away was Oswald from Kennedy? And so that's a search obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind. That is the same day. that it appears that he registered for the butler rally. Here's another question.
Starting point is 00:30:01 Did anyone help Crooks? Did anyone have knowledge about what he was planning to do? Do you have any reason to, are you, do you have any other target of your criminal investigation other than Crooks? Who's dead? We are investigating the shooter both to determine his motive and his preparations and activities before the shooting, but also to make sure,
Starting point is 00:30:22 whether or not there are any co-conspirators, accomplices. At this point, have you developed any evidence to so suggest that there are any accomplices or cooperators or sisters? Not at this time, but again, the investigation is ongoing. And Director Ray would also say that, quote, a lot of people describe Crooks as a loner. That does kind of fit with what we're seeing in his devices. You know, his list of contacts, for example, is very short compared to what you would normally see for most people. Doesn't appear to be a whole lot of interaction between him, you know, face-to-face or digital.
Starting point is 00:30:52 with a lot of people. The FBI, by the way, has conducted over 400 interviews, and apparently they're going to be conducting more. But what we also know, according to Director Ray, was that Crooks was an avid shooting hobbyist, that he belonged to a shooting club, that he went to certain shooting ranges, that he went to a range before this shooting and shot an AR-15 style rifle, not entirely clear whether it was the weapon that he actually used, but it very well could be. And the FBI did interview Crook's parents? And of course, the question becomes, were they aware of what he was about to do in any way? Well, Director Ray said, they are cooperative, but he doubled down on the fact that they have not IDed any accomplices with Mr. Crooks. Okay. Now, speaking of
Starting point is 00:31:42 the parents, by the way, Ray confirmed that the FBI did recover 14 weapons from the house. apparently the shooter had been living with his parents, and that he used an AR-15-style rifle that the gun was purchased legally by Crook's father in 2013, and according to Ray, he sold it to his son in October of 2023. Also, we got clarification about the suspected shooter's movements. How many separate times was the shooter on the premises? So again, with the caveat that we're continuing to do work on it, we believe that the first time he traveled to the grounds was, I think, a week before. He spent roughly 20 minutes there. Then he went to the grounds again on the morning of the event, it appears, for about 70 minutes,
Starting point is 00:32:40 I think. But again, I'd have to go back and look to be sure of that part. And then he came back in the afternoon. So that would be, I guess, a third time for good. But that included things like this drone activity we just talked about. Now, Ray also took the time to address a theory that has been circulating that former President Donald Trump wasn't hit by a bullet, but rather glass from the teleprompter, which has fed some alternative views on what happened that day. And personally, I don't know. I don't know how it's significant that difference is. Was he shot at or not? Whether it was the bullet or shrapnel, this was clearly an assassination attempt.
Starting point is 00:33:24 But Christopher Ray said this. Quote, with respect to former President Trump, there's some questions about whether or not it's a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear. It's conceivable, although as I sit here right now, I don't know whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else. But I believe we've accounted for all the shots in the cartridges. So not a ton of clarity there. Ray did indicate, though, that as more information comes out, they will try to be transparent with that information with the public and the media. Now, another big event happened this week. The House officially voted in a resolution to create a bipartisan task force to investigate this shooting.
Starting point is 00:34:06 416 members voted in favor of this, so it will look into federal, state, and local law enforcement protocols and actions leading up to and including that day. now remember the purpose or outcome is a little bit different than what we talked about before the plan is to issue a final report by December 13th with any recommendations for legislative reforms to prevent something like this happening again Congress after all they are the ones that craft our laws and regulations so that investigation has a little bit of a different purpose and even though it will overlap with the other ones has a different purpose than the other investigations so a lot happened this week hopefully that was a good summation of things that happened we will see what happens next week and hopefully we will get more answers because you know what we need them
Starting point is 00:34:59 that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar everybody thank you so much for joining us and as always please subscribe on apple podcast Spotify YouTube wherever you get your podcasts I'm jesse Weber. We'll speak to you next time.

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