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Several Secret Service agents have been placed on leave amid the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, a report suggests.
The agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field officers is one of those involved, MSNBC he said on Friday morning.
The shooting of the former president on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, has sparked multiple investigations that are ongoing.
Republican Rep. Mike Waltz told DailyMail.com earlier this week that he was not convinced the would-be killer acted alone.
Several Secret Service agents have been placed on leave during the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, reports suggest
He said the gunman’s motivation is still unknown and he is concerned that a foreign entity or other third party may have been involved in the attack.
Waltz asked how federal authorities can say with certainty that Crooks was a lone wolf if they can’t answer other questions, such as why he had multiple foreign encrypted messaging accounts.
His comments came after it was revealed that Iran was also planning an assassination attempt on the former president around the same time Crooks carried out his plot.
“The deeper we get into it, the more questions I have,” Waltz said. “It’s what’s really emerging around it that’s so disturbing.”
“And to me, the most disturbing thing is that we have ongoing plots from Iran to eliminate a former president, a leading candidate, and a Pakistani citizen has just been arrested after making an initial payment to hitmen, and it’s barely being covered in the news.”
Crooks, 20, was able to create multiple explosives with remote detonators, another thing that surprised Waltz and made him wonder if he received help.
Thomas Matthew Crooks is pictured at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 before opening fire on the crowd and the former president.
Crooks, 20, was shot dead on the spot by the US Secret Service after he killed one rally-goer, seriously injured two other supporters and barely grazed the side of Trump’s ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
As the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and the Department of Homeland Security conduct their investigations into the massive security breach, Waltz and 12 other lawmakers on a House task force are also investigating the assassination attempt.
“I don’t understand it and I still don’t have any answers that would help me understand how the (Secret) Service and DHS came out so quickly and said – and I think the FBI did too, but I’ll have to check – that he was operating alone,” Waltz said while speaking to DailyMail.com at Trump Tower in Chicago on Wednesday. “How do you know that just days into your investigation?”
The Florida congressman added: “They can’t tell us what his motive was, but can they tell us he acted alone? They can’t access these encrypted accounts overseas, but can they tell us he acted alone? So I don’t believe it yet.”
Crooks was shot and killed by Secret Service officers after launching an attack at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
A bullet fired from his AR-type weapon, legally purchased by his father, grazed the former president’s right ear.
The robbers killed one protester and seriously injured two others before being removed from the scene.
The FBI also found explosives in Crooks’ car, which was parked near the protest site. And when they raided his parents’ home, where he lived, they found more bombs.
“I don’t know many 19-year-olds who can make multiple IEDs with a remote detonator on their own,” Waltz told DailyMail.com. “Why hasn’t it been detected if he’s looking on the internet or buying literature on how to do it?”
