The FBI said it found the Trump rally shooter’s Steam account, then took it back

FBI officials told Congress connected Wednesday that the 20-year-old who changeable astatine erstwhile President Donald Trump whitethorn person posted a informing connected Steam earlier the onslaught — but CNN is present reporting that investigators deliberation the relationship is fake.

Investigators astatine the bureau “gained access” to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone earlier this week and person been combing done it to find his motive and enactment unneurotic a timeline of events. In a briefing with members of Congress connected Wednesday, FBI officials said Crooks had utilized his telephone and different devices to hunt for accusation astir and images of Trump and President Joe Biden — and that helium near a cryptic connection connected Steam announcing the shooting, according to reports by the New York Times and ABC News.

“July 13 volition beryllium my premiere, ticker arsenic it unfolds,” reads the message, which investigators told Congress was posted by Crooks. But the FBI has since “revised its assessment,” according to CNN’s Sean Lyngaas.

The Verge has reached retired to the FBI and to Valve, which owns and operates Steam, for comment.

Crooks besides searched for dates of Trump’s nationalist appearances and of the Democratic National Convention successful Chicago, according to aggregate reports. In summation to Trump and Biden, Crooks looked up aggregate salient figures, including FBI manager Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and a subordinate of the British royal family, 2 officials with cognition of the concern told the New York Times. 

Crooks’s telephone is “one of respective devices” instrumentality enforcement has obtained and is scanning, sources told ABC News. Investigators are besides reviewing Crooks’s message and shipping past aft uncovering 3 explosive devices connected to him, according to a national instrumentality enforcement memo obtained by the New York Times. Crooks received aggregate packages implicit the past respective months, immoderate of which were marked “hazardous material.” 

So far, nary of the accusation instrumentality enforcement has obtained connected Crooks points to a wide motive. Per the New York Times, Wray noted that determination was an lack of “any governmental oregon ideological information” successful Crooks’ home.

On 1 telephone with members of Congress, Kimberly Cheatle, the caput of the Secret Service, told legislators that the bureau had made superior “mistakes,” according to the New York Times. It looks similar the FBI, which is inactive aboriginal successful its investigation, whitethorn person made immoderate arsenic well.