Topics: Politics, News, US News, Donald Trump, Crime
The body of the young man who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump is apparently ‘gone’, after the FBI conducted a ‘scorched earth’ investigation into the shooting.
Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who joined Congress' bipartisan task force to review the assassination attempt, has come forward to reveal that when he attempted to view the body of Thomas Matthew Crooks on August 5 as part of his personal inspection, he was told he wasn’t there.
Crooks, aged 20, attempted to assassinate Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania back in July, in which he managed to graze the presidential candidate’s ear.
He was soon shot dead by security on the scene and his body was taken away.
Advert
Trump's near-death miss was caught on camera by those who were there, with him holding up his fist to the crowd becoming a symbol for his loyal supporters.
However, former police captain-turned-lawmaker Clay Higgins has revealed in a new report that when he wanted to review the body of the attempted assassin, it ‘caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact.’
The fact was that the FBI had ‘released the body for cremation 10 days’ after he shot at Trump in Butler.
Higgins explained that ‘nobody knew’ the body had been sent back to the family, and this included the local law enforcement, and even the county coroner, who still had ‘legal authority over the body’.
Because of this, Higgins alleges that the FBI hare guilty of ‘obstruction.’
At the time of the assassination attempt, Secret Service Chief Kimberly Cheatle resigned on July 23, which also caused a stir.
While that was the only high-profile resignation in the wake of the shooting, the team was still scrambling for answers.
As Higgins described his investigation in Butler from August 4 to 6 as a ‘boots on the ground’ attempt, his ‘preliminary investigative report’ - which was submitted to Task Force Chairman Mike Kelly on August 12 and publicly released on Higgins' website shortly after - took aim at the FBI.
In the report, Higgins asked why the organization released Crooks’s body without telling others, and especially before he could examine the body himself.
He expressed that this would mean that there would be uncertainty about the accuracy of the coroner's report and the autopsy.
He wrote: "We will actually never know. Yes, we'll get the reports and pictures, but I will not ever be able to say with certainty that those reports and pictures are accurate according to my own examination of the body."
Higgins also went in hard about the FBI’s decision to undermine the Task Force and coroner, writing: "Similar to releasing the crime scene and scrubbing crime scene biological evidence... This action by the FBI can only be described by any reasonable man as an obstruction to any following investigative effort."
He went on to share that on the day Crooks was cremated on July 23, the Homeland Security Committee and the Oversight Committee had opened investigations into the assassination attempt.
An FBI spokesperson told UNILAD: "Any suggestion the FBI is interfering with congressional efforts to look into the attempted assassination which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, is inaccurate and unfounded.
"The FBI has been working closely with our law enforcement partners to conduct a thorough investigation into the shooting, and we have followed normal procedures in the handling of the crime scene and evidence.
"The FBI continues its painstaking work on the investigation to develop as complete a picture as possible of what led to the shooting, and we remain committed to maximum transparency as we continue to brief Congress and publish information for the public regarding the ongoing investigation."
