A SWAT sniper who was working at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania where a gunman opened fire has issued a damning verdict on alleged FBI evidence tampering.
Washington Regional SWAT sniper Ben Shaffer admitted it was “absolutely” concerning that the roof of the AGR International building where gunman Thomas Matthew Crook, 20, was located was quickly cleared after the July 13 assassination attempt.
He also agreed with Republican lawmakers that it was suspicious that Crooks’ body was dumped before an official autopsy could be released at a panel discussion hosted by the Heritage Foundation on Monday.
Shaffer later acknowledged that Crooks should have been elevated from a “person of interest” to someone “who would have warranted some type of investigative stop” by officers because he was using a rangefinder.
Washington Regional SWAT sniper Ben Shaffer delivered a damning verdict on the FBI’s alleged tampering with evidence during a Heritage Foundation panel discussion on Monday.
Rep. Cory Mills of Florida asked the counter-sniper about the FBI’s decision to clear the sloped roof of the AGR International building, which former Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle infamously said was too steep to locate an agent.
“Does it strike you as odd that literally just days after the attempted assassination of President Donald J. Trump, while the ceiling was too steep to place individuals in counter-attack operations, it was not too steep for the FBI to go ahead and disturb, in my view, evidence by washing the ceiling that could have had significant evidence on it?” Mills asked.
“Yes, I do,” he replied.
Mills then asked Shaffer about his thoughts on the release and cremation of Matthew Crooks’ body.
‘Do you also find it strange… that Matthew Crooks’ body was not only released and cremated, but that the coroner responsible for releasing the body was not aware of this?’ he asked.
“Yes, absolutely,” Shaffer said.
Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater in the late 1990s, said at the time: “It sounds like destruction of evidence.”
Five members of Congress angry at not being selected for the task force held a hearing-style event at the Heritage Foundation seeking to find answers about the assassination attempt.
The hearing came about a week after Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), a former police officer and member of the House select task force investigating the attempted murder, released a six-page preliminary report to a 13-member bipartisan task force.
He said his effort to examine Crooks’ body on Aug. 5 created “a stir and revealed a disturbing fact… the FBI released the body for cremation 10 days later on July 13.”
“On July 23, Crooks left,” Higgins wrote. according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
He added that while the Butler County coroner technically had legal authority over the body, he “would never have released Crooks’ body to the family for cremation or burial without specific permission from the FBI.”
“The problem with not being able to examine the actual body is that I won’t know 100 percent if the coroner’s report and the autopsy report are accurate,” Higgins wrote.
“We will never know for sure,” he argued. “Yes, we will have reports and photographs, etc., but I will never be able to say for sure whether those reports and photographs are accurate based on my own examination of the body.”
Shaffer was asked if he agreed it was suspicious that the body of gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks (pictured) was dumped before an official autopsy could be released.
Higgins further claimed in his report that the FBI “cleaned biological evidence from the crime scene,” something he said was unheard of.
“Cops never do that,” he said. “This pattern of sweeping investigation by the FBI is quite disturbing.”
But the office has denied any wrongdoing.
“Any suggestion that the FBI is interfering with Congress’s efforts to investigate the attempted assassination that took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, is inaccurate and baseless,” he said. he said in a statement to the New York Post.
‘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 handling the crime scene and evidence.
‘The FBI continues its hard work in 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 share information with Congress, including participating in open hearings and holding multiple direct briefings and releasing information to the public about the ongoing investigation.
“The crime scene was turned over to the property owners in phases as we completed our work in the AGR building, surrounding area and Butler Farm Show grounds. Nothing was rushed and everything was documented as part of the investigation,” the office added.
He also said that “the place where the perpetrator died has been cleaned up, which is in accordance with normal procedures.”
“The shooter’s body was released to his family after coordination with the coroner’s office and our state and local law enforcement partners. This is also in keeping with normal procedure.”
Higgins published his findings on the FBI investigation in an initial report last week.
Mills, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division, has now vowed that this “won’t be the last” of its kind.
“This is a message to all of Congress: If we don’t select people based on meritocracy, independent investigations will continue to move forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, several members of the bipartisan group toured Butler, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
Several told DailyMail.com they were surprised by the proximity of the building where Crooks was located to the stage of the rally where Trump was speaking on July 13.
They limped to the roof of the AGR building, where Crooks opened fire just a few hundred yards from the former president, shooting Trump in the right ear.
Lawmakers spent time walking around the protest site to “understand the physical space” and “where this security deficiency occurred,” as Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., explained.
“And I tell you, for many of us, this raises more questions than we had when we came here today, because we can see that it’s not a big place,” he said.
“We get a sense of the area and how close these buildings were to the stage where President Trump stood that day. So for all of us, having the opportunity to see, walk around and experience this was a really crucial step in our research process.”
Lawmakers also toured the scene of the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Monday as they try to get to the bottom of the security failures that led to the shooting.
Ranking Member Jason Crowe (D-Colo.), who served as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan, also referred to the numerous “sight lines that appeared to not have been secured that day.”
“Certainly, at this point I have a lot more questions than answers,” he added.
Speaker Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) even revealed that it is too early to completely rule out “criminal negligence,” in a sign that those responsible for the near-death of the former president and the killing of retired firefighter Corey Comperatore, who attended the rally, could face criminal charges.
He is also urging his colleagues in Congress to step aside and let the panel complete its investigation before releasing more information about the attempted assassination of the former president by Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Higgins further stated in his report that the FBI “cleaned biological evidence from the crime scene, something unprecedented.”
The FBI has denied any wrongdoing and insisted it followed its normal procedures.
Asked if his colleagues were undermining the task force’s efforts, Kelly told DailyMail.com in Butler on Monday: “As members of Congress, they can do that, but we were the only task force created by the president and the minority leader.”
“I would love for them to wait until we finally know what really happened, rather than leaving early,” she continued. “Leaving early is fine, as long as you know when you go on stage that what you’re saying is what really happened.”
“We have talented people in Congress right now and they love to get involved in these things. That’s fine, that’s fine,” the president said, slightly exasperated. “But there is a task force. It’s been appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Minority Leader.”
“I wish we could get some time to start. We’re not starting today, this started at the beginning of August.”