Thomas Crooks used encrypted messaging accounts on multiple platforms based in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany, according to Rep. Mike Waltz, a congressman appointed to a congressional task force investigating the assassination attempt.
Crooks nearly killed former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month
Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., told reporters about the accounts while at the Trump Hotel Chicago Wednesday.
Waltz is a retired Green Beret who was appointed to the bipartisan U.S. House task force investigating the attempted assassination of Trump.
Waltz answered questions posed by a reporter about what members of the task force had discovered about the encrypted messages on the shooter’s cellphone during their investigation.
“We still haven’t learned a lot. We haven’t learned that much about those overseas accounts,” Waltz said, referring to accounts held by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“We do know that they were in, if I get this correctly, Belgium, New Zealand and Germany.
“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aide need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad, where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into? That’s a question I’ve had since day one.”
Waltz took the opportunity at the Trump property to bash the FBI and Secret Service for keeping the lid on their investigation until it’s complete, which won’t be for months.
“They need to be releasing information as they come across it, because this wasn’t an isolated incident,” Waltz said. “The threats are continually Iran’s threats.”
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