Donald Trump gunman Thomas Crooks ‘had pictures of Princess Kate on his phone’
The gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump had looked up Kate Middleton and saved pictures of her on his phone, according to the FBI.
Thomas Matthew Crooks was also searching for pornography on the internet shortly before opening fire on the ex-president.
Crooks shot Trump in the ear as he delivered a speech at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday.
And now details of his disgusting last online activity ahead of the attack have been revealed after investigators finally managed to crack into his Samsung Android phone.
His search for porn was the last one the 20-year-old would make before he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper within seconds of taking aim at Trump.
Crooks, a former Bethel Park High School student, also killed Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old dad who was at the rally, and injured another member of the audience.
Among other searches on his devices, Crooks also looked up FBI Director Christopher Wray and US Attorney General Merrick Garland, reports MailOnline.
His other final activity on his phone included text messages from his parents who asked where he was after he failed to return home from the gun range.
It’s not yet known why Crooks was searching for the Princess of Wales online, who was the only non-American he’d looked up.
There is no evidence to suggest that Crooks was planning on travelling to the UK, investigators told a private briefing with lawmakers.
The FBI came across the searches for Kate – who has only made a handful of recent public appearances due to her cancer recovery – when they examined two of his mobile phones and a laptop.
Officials recovered a number of external hard drives from the home he lived in with his parents.
Crooks also searched for the dates of Trump’s rally in Butler, pictures of the former president, images of Biden, dates of the Democratic National Convention and school shooter Ethan Crumbley.
Agents initially struggled to crack into Crooks’ phone and had to send it to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, for the operational technology division to gain access.
US politicians told the press how the FBI said Crooks had ‘scoped out’ the rally venue before firing from a roof around 130 metres away.
Some claims suggest Secret Service agents failed to secure the area fully before the event even though they’d flagged Crooks’ position as a security risk.
Questions have also been raised over how Crooks managed to get close enough to fire shots at a former president.
Head of the agency, Kimberly Cheatle, has come under pressure to stand down after the security failure.
She has been summoned to testify before a committee of the US House of Representatives on July 22.
Special agent Kevin Rojek, who heads up the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, is leading an investigation into the assassination attempt and said they are still trying to work out what Crooks’ motive was.
He told NPR: ‘We don’t have any kind of fidelity right now about the shooter’s action immediately prior to him engaging the former president.’
Last night, Trump’s wife Melania surprised him on stage after a speech in a rare show of affection.
And earlier this week, a new poll found that a number of people believe the attempted Trump assassination was ‘faked’ amid a whirlpool of conspiracy theories.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.