Staff Reports
In an almost laughable display of bureaucratic inefficiency, the FBI continues to dribble out information about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump nearly a fortnight after the incident. Just 11 days since a would-be assassin took aim at the former commander-in-chief in Butler, Pennsylvania, the investigation’s progress has resembled a tortoise participating in a three-legged race.
During a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray finally managed to provide a trickle of information, thanks to an inquiry from Democratic Representative Adam Schiff. Wray disclosed that the potential assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had the foresight to register for Trump’s rally a week before the event and, eerily enough, started googling historical assassination details. Apparently, Crooks had a burning curiosity about how far Lee Harvey Oswald was from John F. Kennedy—a search conducted the very same day he signed up for the rally. The timing certainly raises eyebrows, but not in a way that suggests any competence or urgency from the FBI.
Watch: Trump Shooter Had Horrifying Search History Same Day He Registered for Rally, FBI's Chris Wray Reveals https://t.co/HIjgsLHc2C
— NahBabyNah #Trump (@NahBabyNah) July 24, 2024
Wray’s dramatic unveiling of Crooks’ online activity might just take the cake for the slowest leak in modern history. If an FBI director has to resort to hyping a Google search as “significant” to justify his agency’s sluggishness, one has to wonder what’s truly going on behind the scenes. It’s not every day that crucial insights into a possible assassination attempt are compared to someone revealing their favorite pizza toppings.
Beyond the comedy of errors, Crooks’s unusual obsession with public figures hints at a larger issue: the alarming level of disdain individuals like Wray seem to have for the American public. The FBI is notorious for its opaque and meandering communication style, a reality that is as frustrating as it is revealing. By overly dramatizing scant findings, such as a simple online query, Wray certainly projects a cavalier attitude towards the concerns of the citizens he serves.
It’s hard not to notice the disconnect. While Crooks was plotting—and apparently researching—his attempted attack, the FBI was nowhere to be found with timely or transparent updates. With a search history that can be retrieved in seconds, one has to ponder how much contempt Wray holds for the public and whether he views Congress as merely a bureaucracy to placate rather than an institution for accountability.
In the end, Wray’s testimony illustrates a culture within the FBI that prioritizes obfuscation over transparency. With a lack of straightforward answers surrounding such a serious matter, one cannot help but question the competence and motives of federal officials. For many, Wray’s performance only fueled distrust in an agency that seems increasingly out of touch with the people it is intended to protect.
