(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Human Events reported Wednesday that a U.S. Attorney has empaneled a grand jury as part of a criminal investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Citing a letter obtained from America First Legal, Human Events said a records request about alleged Trump shooter was denied because those records are subject to a grand jury subpoena.
The letter, from the Community College of Allegheny County in response to attorney Wally Zimolong, reportedly denied the request for records on Trump shooter Thomas Crooks’s student files, communications, disciplinary records, or other data containing his name.
“Please be advised that your request is denied on the basis that it requests records that relate to an ongoing criminal investigation, which are exempt from disclosure,” the letter states.
Wow this is pretty interesting. Here's the letter: https://t.co/RpmLFb1Ee1 pic.twitter.com/VaXfN8TCRD
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 28, 2024
“Specifically, the records that you have requested are within the scope of a grand jury subpoena issued to CCAC by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and which the U.S. Attorney’s Office has confirmed relate to an ongoing criminal investigation.”
The news of the grand jury investigation comes on the heels of Crooks’s parents reportedly hiring an attorney as the FBI continues to investigate what they knew about their now-deceased child’s plans for the July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Among many other threads, the FBI could be investigating whether Crooks used his parents’ house to make the purported explosives found in his vehicle. Local sniper Ben Shaffer, who was involved in the security at the Trump shooting, said at a Monday press conference that the explosives were “possibly” made at the Crooks household, where the gunman lived.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., has made cryptic comments about how clean Crooks’s home was when law enforcement searched it after the shooting.
“Did you get any reports from any of your agents of anything fishy at the home. Was there any silverware found in the home, or trash? Was it extremely clean, almost like a medical lab? That’s what I’m hearing. Interesting,” Crane said last month at a congressional hearing.
Meanwhile, the Crookses’ neighbors are beginning to talk to media.
“I would love to know what really happened and what Thomas’ motivation was,” neighbor Kelly Little, 39, told The New York Post in an article this week.
“It’s been weeks since police were here. There’s nothing happening, no police activity,” she reportedly said, reportedly noting that local cops drive by occasionally, but there haven’t been officers stationed there long-term.
Another neighbor who declined to be named reportedly said she doesn’t think Crooks acted alone. Yet another neighbor who only gave her first name, Karen, questioned the parents’ involvement.
“What went on in that house? Why didn’t they know their son was going through whatever he was going through or that their son thought the way he thought?” she reportedly asked.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
