The man who tried to kill President Trump likely acted alone but his motive is unclear, FBI director Christopher Wray said Wednesday, as he shared details about the agency's investigation of the attempted assassination.
The FBI hasn't found anything like a manifesto, Wray told the House Oversight committee, and images of public figures that were stored on the shooter's phone do not appear to have any significance.
The hearing reflected usual partisan divides, with Democrats defending the FBI's integrity and pushing back on calls to defund the agency, which Republicans have accused of targeting Trump and his supporters.
Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Oh.) noted to Wray that many Americans are skeptical of the FBI's involvement in investigating the assassination attempt. But questioning from Republicans was mostly cordial as Wray shared bits of information.
Wray said that photos on the gunman's phone, including of Trump and Joe Biden, were saved automatically in a "cache" from searching news articles.
“This does not appear to be some sort of target list," he said.
Wray said there is currently no evidence the shooter had any accomplices. The gunman's list of phone contacts was "short", and he appeared to be a "loner."
The FBI is working to get inside the gunman's encrypted chats, Wray said.
"There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of interactions between him, face-to-face or digital, with a lot of people," Wray said. "That doesn't mean there's not any."
The gunman became focused on Trump around a week before the shooting, Wray said. On July 6, he registered for the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The same day, he looked up the Kennedy assassination on Google, typing, "how far away from Oswald was Kennedy?"
The gunman visited the rally site a week before the shooting for about 20 minutes and returned on the morning of for 70 minutes. He then returned a third time in the afternoon "for good."
Roughly two hours before the shooting, from 3:50 p.m. to 4 p.m., the shooter flew a drone about 200 yards away from the rally stage. The drone was livestreaming footage. The camera was pointed toward the rally stage, giving a "rear view" of what would have been behind the shooter during the attack.
A purchase of a five-foot ladder was traced to a bloody receipt on the shooter's person, but the ladder was not found at the scene, Wray said.
Investigators believe the gunman climbed on the roof using "mechanical equipment" and piping on the side of the building, he said. The director declined to answer questions about the failure to secure the scene, which has led to backlash against the Secret Service and the resignation of its director Kimberly Cheatle.
The security posture is being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Wray said, while the FBI is focusing on the shooter.
