Trump may share information on Butler assassination attempt after receiving report next week
President Donald Trump expects to receive a report next week on the July 13 assassination attempt on Butler Farm Show grounds and may release it following that briefing, he said Thursday, March 6, while signing executive orders at the White House.
“I would be willing to release it,” Trump said about the report. “Maybe there’s a reason why we shouldn’t. I don’t want to get too far ahead of my skis, but I would be very willing to release it.
“I want to find the answers,” he said.
When a reporter asked Trump at the Thursday event about his reference to the Butler County assassination attempt made during his Congressional joint address earlier in the week, Trump added he also wants answers about the second assassination attempt nine weeks later at a Florida golf course.
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks killed former Buffalo Township fire Chief Corey Comperatore and injured David Dutch, of New Kensington, and James Copenhavoer, of Moon Township, when he shot Trump in the ear and was killed by U.S. Secret Service agents.
The shooter in the second assassination attempt, Ryan Wesley Routh, camped outside the Florida golf course where Trump would play for 12 hours before being arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents.
“On the second assassin … he had six cellphones,” Trump said. “That’s a lot of cellphones, and a couple of them had some strange markings on them. So yeah, I want to find out.”
Trump alleged Crooks, a Bethel Park resident, had three suspicious applications on his phone, two being foreign, and Routh, a resident of Hawaii, had six cellphones. He said the lack of information released and applications found on the shooters’ phones could point to suspicious behavior.
“When you have three apps, and two of them are foreign, and you had an FBI that wouldn’t report on it, they didn’t want to say why, I would say that could be suspicious,” Trump said.
Trump also said Crooks’ family is represented by the biggest “white shoe” law firm in Pennsylvania. Crooks is represented by Quinn Logue, a Pittsburgh firm specializing in personal injury, legal malpractice and employment litigation that also handles criminal defense cases.
