
Trump’s would-be assassin researched previous mass shooter Ethan Crumbley and his family before attack
CNN
The Trump rally shooter searched online for information on the arrest of a Michigan mass shooter and his parents, who were prosecuted in a 2021 high school shooting.
The Trump rally shooter searched online for information on the arrest of a Michigan mass shooter and his parents, who were prosecuted in a 2021 high school shooting. He visited websites for how to build explosives. And in the minutes before he fired shots in an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, he screenshotted a picture from a livestream of the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. A week before the shooting, Thomas Matthew Crooks searched online for the date of the Democratic National Convention and where Trump planned to speak, as well as other searches for Trump and President Joe Biden. These details were among those shared by FBI and US Secret Service officials in a Wednesday briefing with lawmakers and by additional people familiar with the investigation. The previously unreported readout documents the scope of the investigation, including an expanded timeline of the would-be assassin’s actions leading to up his assault and law enforcement’s failure to prevent it. Investigators remain puzzled about possible motives for Saturday’s attempted assassination of the former president, finding little to point to political or ideological intentions for the attack. But the would-be assassin’s recent trail on the internet has provided investigators with a detailed picture of his possible mindset before the attack. FBI behavioral experts are building a profile of Crooks based on the findings, the FBI told lawmakers. One emerging theory by investigators, based in part on the timing and subjects of his online searches, is that the shooter was looking to carry out a mass shooting and that the Trump event’s proximity and timing offered the most ready opportunity, according to a US official briefed on the matter.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.

Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.

Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.

As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.









