The FBI in Pittsburgh is taking exception to a report issued by a member of U.S. Rep.
Mike Kelly’s bipartisan House task force investigating the July 13 attempt on former President Donald Trump at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler County. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La.
, stressed that the six-page report he issued this week is preliminary, not conclusive. Still, Higgins was frustrated in his effort to examine the body of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old Bethel Park, Allegheny County, man who was killed by a sniper after he fired eight shots at Trump and three other men, one of whom was killed. As has been widely reported, Higgins referred to how a Butler SWAT operator “was a total badass” who left his post and went directly into the line of fire from Crooks to take a shot that hit Crooks’ rifle stock, disabling it before another sniper from a counter-sniper team could fire the kill shot at Crooks.
“My effort to examine Crooks’ body on Monday, Aug. 5, caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact,” Higgins said. “The FBI released the body for cremation 10 days after (July 13).
On July 23, Crooks was gone. Nobody knew this until Monday, Aug. 5, including the (Butler) County Coroner, law enforcement, Sheriff, etc.
” Higgins said he was told by the coroner who said “he would have never released Crooks’ body to the family for cremation or burial without specific permission from the FBI.” Higgins said he will have access to reports and pictures, but without access to the body he won’t be able to say such reports and pictures are accurate. “Any suggestion the FBI is interfering with congressional efforts to look into the attempted assassination which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, is inaccurate and unfounded,” according to a statement issued Friday by Bradford Arick, public affairs specialist for the FBI bureau covering 25 counties in western Pennsylvania and all of West Virginia.
“The FBI has been working closely with our law enforcement partners to conduct a thorough investigation into the shooting, and we have followed normal procedures in the handling of the crime scene and evidence,” Arick’s statement continued. “The FBI continues its painstaking work on the investigation to develop as complete a picture as possible of what led to the shooting, and we remain committed to maximum transparency as we continue to brief Congress and publish information for the public regarding the ongoing investigation.” Higgins is a former U.
S. Army staff sergeant and former law enforcement officer who maintains an active commission and Peace Officer’s Standards and Training, or POST, certification, and also serves on the Homeland Security and Oversight committees. His report went on to say “the FBI cleaned up biological evidence from the crime scene, which is unheard of.
Cops don’t do that, ever.” In his response, Arick said “the crime scene was released to the property owners in phases as we completed our work at the AGR building (from which Crooks fired his shots), its surroundings, and at the Butler Farm Show grounds. Nothing was rushed and everything was documented as part of the investigation.
“The FBI arranged for the cleaning of the location where the perpetrator died which is in keeping with normal procedures,” Arick’s statement continued. “The shooter’s body was released to his family after coordination with the coroner’s office and our state and local law enforcement partners. This is also in keeping with normal procedures.
” Higgins said Crooks was cremated as both the House Homeland Security and Oversight committees had begun a jurisdictional investigation into the July 13 incident, and “Speaker (Mike Johnson, also of Louisiana) had already stated that he was forming an official congressional investigative body. Why, then, by what measure, would the FBI release his body to the family for cremation? This pattern of investigative scorched earth by the FBI is quite troubling.” Arick concluded the Pittsburgh FBI response by saying agents there continue “to be actively engaged with the Butler community, with sites at the Butler Farm Show grounds where evidence was recovered, and with local, state, and federal law enforcement as we continue to refine the exact details of this case, and find and identify leads, in order to provide as much information as possible to the American people.
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