FBI releases new photos of gun used to shoot Donald Trump

The FBI has released new photos of the gun used to shoot Donald Trump during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as well as the backpack and explosives the shooter had in his car at the rally. The pictures were released Wednesday as FBI officials gave new details around Thomas Matthew Crooks’ internet searches in the days before the shooting and how investigators are using those searches to piece together his mindset that day.

The photos show the firearm’s collapsable stock, which investigators say may have been used to conceal the rifle at the site. Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, detailed how the shooter saw the Trump rally as a “target of opportunity.” Officials have not yet identified a motive and said that Crooks expressed “no definitive ideology.”

“I can confirm that there was no second shooter,” Rojek told reporters. On Crooks’ motive, Bobby Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said that investigators have a “clearer idea of mindset” but that “at this time, the FBI has not identified a motive, nor any co-conspirators or associates of Crooks with advanced knowledge of the attack.”

Wells also stressed that “we have not seen any indication that Crooks was directed by a foreign entity.” When asked about past online posts that seemed political in nature from accounts associated with Crooks, Rojek said the FBI continued “to see through our analysis a mixture of ideologies” from Crooks.

“I would say that we see no definitive ideology associated with our subject, either left-leaning or right-leaning,” Rojek said. The FBI on Wednesday laid out how Trump’s would-be assassin had researched campaign events for the former president as well as President Joe Biden but then became “hyper-focused” on the Pennsylvania rally just 40 minutes from the shooter’s home.

Those searches, Rojek said, also show the detailed searches Crooks made regarding the rally location, including the building where Crooks was when he shot at Trump. This story has been updated with additional information.