In a surprising move, the FBI released the body of Trump shooter Thomas Crooks to his family for cremation just ten days after the July 13 attack at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, despite knowing that further investigations were forthcoming into what is being considered one of the biggest security failures in U.S. history.
The revelation came in a report by Congressman Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), who is part of a House bipartisan task force looking into the terrifying incident. He attempted to view the shooter’s body on August 5 for a personal inspection as part of a “boots on the ground” visit to Butler last month. This request, he said, “caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact.”
The body, which Higgins fully expected to still be available, had already been released to Crooks's family so it could be cremated just ten days after the shooting. He was surprised to learn that nobody was aware of this fact, not even the coroner, who technically still had legal authority over Crooks’s body at the time.
Higgins, who is a former law enforcement officer, labeled the move “obstruction” in his preliminary investigative report, which he submitted to Task Force Chairman Mike Kelly (R-Pennsylvania) this week and published on his website last night.
In the report, he asks why the body was released by the FBI with no oversight whatsoever, explaining that being unable to examine the body means that no one can confirm the veracity of the autopsy and coroner’s reports. With so many questions still unanswered about his motive for the attack, it is an unusual step.
“Yes, we'll get the reports and pictures, but I will not ever be able to say with certainty that those reports and pictures are accurate according to my own examination of the body,” he noted.
That’s not the only suspicious action the FBI took in the aftermath of the attack; they also took the very unusual step of scrubbing the crime scene of biological evidence and releasing the crime scene just three days afterward. This certainly sounds like someone is trying to cover something up, and Higgins clearly called them out on it.
“Again, similar to releasing the crime scene and scrubbing crime scene biological evidence... this action by the FBI can only be described by any reasonable man as an obstruction to any following investigative effort,” he asserted.
He said that some of the first responders at the scene of the rally told him they were “surprised” the FBI allowed them to leave on the night of the shooting.
“I interviewed several First Responders who expressed everything from surprise to dismay to suspicion regarding the fact that the FBI released the crime scene so early,” he stated.
Higgins vows to get answers
Higgins vowed to get to the bottom of the situation as part of the ongoing investigation by the bipartisan committee.
“As I have said, every question will be answered, every theory explored, and every doubt erased. The American people deserve the full truth on the attempted assassination of President Trump,” he promised.
The task force, which is made up of seven Republicans and six Democrats, is slated to issue its final report into what went wrong on the day of the assassination attempt by December 13; they will also recommend ways to avoid similar security lapses in the future.
Higgins isn’t the only one who believes law enforcement acted inappropriately. The family of the rally attendee who was killed that day by Crooks during the shooting, Corey Comperatore, said that they believe his “blood is on the hands” of law enforcement officers responsible for the rally.
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