Support truly
independent journalism
The parents of 20-year-old Thomas Crooks who shot Donald Trump last month have retained a lawyer as the FBI investigates the attempted assassination, according to a new report.
An unnamed family member told The Daily Mail that Crooks’s parents have sought the services of Pittsburgh-based law firm Quinn Logue. The move comes as the FBI continues to question how much Matthew and Mary Crooks knew about their son’s plan to assassinate Trump, the Mail reports.
Matthew Crooks is interested in guns and has sold firearms to family members in the past, the source told the Mail. “The FBI still very much has questions about how much they knew and how [Thomas Crooks] slipped through the net,” the individual said.
Quinn Logue specializes in both criminal and civil law, including wrongful death and personal injury, according to its website.
Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. The 20-year-old, who shot Trump in the ear, also killed attendee Corey Comperatore and injured two others. Crooks was shot dead by a sniper at the scene.
The FBI is still investigating how Crooks was able to carry out the shooting from a rooftop near the rally stage. The FBI briefed Trump on their investigation earlier this month, revealing that they still don’t have a clear motive, ABC News reported. However, Crooks may have targeted Trump just because he was the next big-name politician to come to Pennsylvania.
Crooks searched dates of Trump rallies and the Democratic National Convention before the shooting, according to The New York Times. The 20-year-old had also saved pictures of Joe Biden, Trump, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Catherine, the Princess of Wales onto his electronic devices, NPR reports.
FBI agents told Trump that Crooks paid his father $500 for a rifle months before the assassination attempt, ABC News reported. However, Crooks had to get the gun from his father before going to the rally site, FBI agents told the former president, according to ABC News.
The FBI declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.
In the weeks since the assassination attempt, the Secret Service has been heavily critized. Last week, “five or six” agents were placed on leave as “disciplinary action,” according to MSNBC.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told CBS News the “mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle stepped down last month after calls from lawmakers for her resignation. Her replacement, Ronald Rowe, later admitted that the agency had failed “on multiple levels.”
“That roofline should’ve been covered,” he said earlier this month. “We should’ve had more eyes on that.”
Recently released body camera footage from Pennsylvania law enforcement also suggested that local officers warned Secret Service agents about the building that Crooks climbed on top of, and shot from.
“I f****ing told them they need to post the f****** guys over here,” an officer said in the video.
The Independent has contacted Matthew Crooks and Quinn Logue for comment.
