Media Call Transcript

FBI Assistant Director Cathy Milhoan: Good morning, everybody. This is Cathy, assistant director of the FBI's Office of Public Affairs, and thank you all for joining us. This is a series of calls and briefings that we've had with you, members of Congress and others as part of our continuing efforts to deliver information to the public through you all.

This call is on the record, and you may record the call for audio. But that audio is embargoed until the call is over. So, again, you may record for audio but embargoed until the call is over. Joining me here today is FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate; FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert "Bobby" Wells; and the FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek.

The Deputy is going to begin with comments, and then I'll turn it over again to Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek, who is going to give an in-depth brief of our investigation thus far. Sir?

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate: Thank you, Cathy, and to our OPA colleagues for setting this up. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Thanks to each of you for taking the time to join us today. As we've been doing in an effort to be fully transparent, given the national importance and the need to provide and ensure that the American people have all the information relative to this case. We, the FBI, are continuing to share all that we can about our investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Trump on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania.

We're taking another opportunity today to do that to ensure that the most accurate, up-to-date information is provided publicly, in part, through each of you. So, thank you again. This investigation remains urgent and ongoing, and FBI personnel, agents, analysts, professional staff are working literally around the clock, 24/7, as we continue to uncover new and refined details and evidence regarding the attack.

Our teams, of course, are focused on building a timeline of events leading up to the attack, covering a number of different aspects. Our priorities within that, of course, are - to identify the shooter's motive, which, as the SAC and the EAD will get into, is still not clear, and to determine whether any co-conspirators or associates were involved in or aware of the plot in advance.

To be clear, though we have ruled nothing out, and we're leaving no stone unturned and continuing on that course, we have no information at this time that there are any co-conspirators.

While it is not typical for us, the FBI, to share details of an open investigation, we believe it is critical in this instance to provide the public and all of you with everything that we know about this heinous attack and to correct the record where inaccurate or false information is put out in the realm.

Again, as a result of all that, we're doing everything in our power to fully share information and to be as transparent as possible with each of you. And we're committed to ensuring that the most accurate information is reported, and we're grateful again to each of you for helping us in that regard. We want to arm each of you and share with you real information, the truth, the cold hard facts that we've developed and continue to bring out in the course of our investigation.

In a moment, we'll go over to Kevin Rojek, the Special Agent in Charge of our exceptional Pittsburgh Field Office. And Kevin will lay out further details regarding the investigation. We're also joined by the Executive Assistant Director of our National Security Branch, Bobby Wells. But first, I wanted to take just a brief moment to thank, again, the hardworking FBI Special Agents, FBI Intelligence Analysts, and FBI professional staff who have been working nonstop since July 13th, literally moments after our personnel responded after receiving word from the Secret Service to the site and took over the lead in the investigation in the scene within mere hours of the incident occurring.

I had the opportunity to visit myself over the weekend the site in Butler, Pennsylvania, and also our field office there to meet with and hear from the people who are working on the front line on the case. And again, they're doing an exceptional job. That includes also our extended investigative teams who have conducted literally hundreds of interviews and run down thousands of leads. It includes our evidence response teams, behavioral analysts, forensic scientists, operational technology personnel, victim specialists, and many, many others who are doing everything they can to advance and support this critical investigation.

We also seek to reassure the public that our teams are doing everything they can to support the after-action reviews. We know there are several that have already been announced or started through the DHS Inspector General, through Congress, through the independently named commission, and we plan to and are fully cooperating with each of those entities in pursuit of their mission in regard to this attack also.

I also want to highlight the cooperation with the U.S. Secret Service, with the Pennsylvania State Police, with Allegheny County and Butler County, and too many other to name state and local law enforcement partners, both in the investigation in terms of providing information to us in certain instances as witnesses. We're grateful to each and every one of our partners in that regard as well.

To be clear, relative to that, relative to Secret Service, we're not investigating from the FBI standpoint or evaluating what was done correctly or incorrectly by any protective service or other law enforcement agency, in regard to security planning, posture, or execution. We defer entirely to others, though we are collecting facts that is relative to that and that, again, we're sharing cooperatively in order to assist those in conducting reviews focused on those elements. But again, the entirety of the FBI is committed to uncovering the real facts, the truth about this attack on former President Trump and the murder of Mr. Comperatore and the injury to others as well. 

And to keep the American people informed of those facts and the progress that we're making and what we learn along the way. I'd now like to welcome, again, FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge, Kevin Rojek, to take it from here and to further discuss the investigation. We'll follow that, as Cathy mentioned, with questions at the conclusion. Kevin? 

FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek: Thank you, Deputy Director Abbate. My name is Kevin Rojek, and I'm the special agent in charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh Field Office. Our office is the lead investigative office since the incident occurred in the FBI Pittsburgh's air responsibility. I want to begin by offering my condolences again to all the victims of this heinous act, to the family of heroic firefighter and father Corey Comperatore, who lost his life. To David Dutch and James Copenhaver, whose recoveries continue. And to former President Trump, who was also struck by a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the subject's weapon. I would also like to offer my support and gratitude to the seven local law enforcement officers injured either as a result of the shooting or from their actions during the initial response.

Regarding the scope of the FBI's investigation, our mission is to attempt to identify a motive for the shooting and whether or not the subject acted alone or conspired with others to commit this act. The FBI's role is not to investigate any failures in security or determine fault of any agency.

This investigation has involved a monumental effort by the FBI, along with our partners in the Pennsylvania State Police and the United States Attorney's Office. I want to acknowledge the incredible team at FBI Pittsburgh, who have been working around the clock since the night of July 13th.

Additionally, more than 300 agents, intelligence professionals, and professional staff employees from across the FBI have contributed significantly to this investigation. Employees from approximately half of the FBI's field offices, nearly all of our headquarters divisions, as well as several of our international offices, have lent their expertise and assistance in some capacity to this case.

To date, the FBI has conducted over 450 interviews with more likely to occur. We served legal process requests to 86 different companies related to accounts associated with the subject, meaning legal requests to these companies to provide the data and contents associated with these accounts.

As part of our normal investigative process, we regularly interview victims of crime to offer our support and learn more about their perspective regarding their experience. To that end, we have contacted former President Trump, and he has agreed to participate in a victim interview.

As part of our investigation, we examined over 2,100 tips from the public through our digital media tip line, including images, videos, documents, and audio recordings. This partnership and support from the public is absolutely critical after events like this, and I want to thank everyone who has sent in their tips thus far and encourage people to continue to contribute. Your information has proved to be invaluable.

Law enforcement and emergency personnel to include special agents and officers with the U.S. Secret Service and other state and local officers, as well as others who were attending the event on July 13th have all been extremely cooperative in the conduct of this investigation.

Our investigation quickly yielded a positive identification of the subject. Subsequent steps have been focused on better understanding what led this individual to execute this heinous attack. Investigators have interviewed dozens of people who knew or interacted with the subject. This included family members, co-workers, former teachers, classmates, and others.

We also consulted with specialists assigned to the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit to offer their expertise as we worked to develop a profile of the subject. We have learned the subject was highly intelligent, attended college, and maintained steady employment. His primary social circle appears to be limited to his immediate family, as we believe he had few friends and acquaintances throughout his life.

We've identified our subject's interest in shooting began as a hobby and progressed into formal firearms training courses, particularly since September of 2023. We continue to analyze his electronic devices and social media accounts for additional information and insight into his psyche. We have searched and continue to search multiple cell phones related to the subject, as well as other electronics, including laptop computers, a router, and memory cards.

The FBI is looking at the email accounts, gaming accounts, messaging platforms, social media accounts, as well as online search engines in an attempt to determine a possible motive and whether the subject acted alone or worked with co-conspirators.

From our subject's Internet search history, we determined the subject specifically searched, and I quote, “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy”. Additionally, our investigation has revealed he also made searches related to power plants, mass shooting events, information on improvised explosive devices, and the attempted assassination of the Slovakian Prime Minister earlier this year.

Another point of clarification: the investigation has revealed searches of nationally elected officials, including our current and former presidents, and a detailed analysis of those searches is ongoing. All other images associated with searches of key American political figures appeared only as cached images, likely as a result of the subject reviewing news stories and media coverage online, and not specific searches associated with these individuals.

While the FBI's investigation may not yet have determined a motive, we believe the subject made significant efforts to conceal his activities. Additionally, we believe his actions also show a careful planning ahead of the campaign rally.

We identified the model of the rifle the subject used; a DPMS AR-15 style firearm designed to shoot 5.56-millimeter ammunition. Thanks to our partners at the ATF, we know the weapon was purchased legally in 2013 by the subject's father, and our investigation has shown it was legally transferred to our subject last year from his father. We continue to analyze the rifle and shell casings at the FBI Lab in Quantico, Virginia.

We know the weapon had a collapsible stock, and we know the subject carried a backpack with him as he made his way to the position on the roof. However, we are still working to determine how the subject was able to conceal the rifle until just minutes prior to the shooting.

Regarding explosive devices, we recovered two explosive devices from the trunk of the subject's vehicle near the site of the rally, and one explosive device in the subject's room at his residence. These devices consist of ammunition boxes filled with explosive material with wires, receivers, and ignition devices connected to them.

The FBI Laboratory has determined that both IEDs recovered from the subject's vehicle did not explode adjacent to the site of the rally due to the receivers both being in the off position. Explosive experts in the FBI Lab assessed the devices from the subject's vehicle were capable of exploding. However, the magnitude of the damage associated with an explosion is unclear.

As recovered, the IED from the subject's residence was determined to be non-functional due to missing initiation system components. Our lab continues to analyze bullet and bullet fragments from the scene, the explosive devices located in the subject's vehicle and home, the drone located in his car, and other physical evidence including fingerprints and foot impressions.

Regarding the subject's use of a ladder, our investigation has revealed the subject did, in fact, purchase a ladder at a hardware store on the day of the attack. However, that ladder was not present with the subject at the farm showgrounds at the time of the shooting.

Our investigation has revealed the ladder was left at a location near his home, approximately 50 miles away from the site of the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. And to clarify again, this ladder was not used during the course of the attack on July 13th. Through analysis by our Evidence Response Team, we believe the subject accessed the roof by scaling some HVAC equipment along with a pipe located outside of the business and the AGR compound.

Numerous media outlets have also reported a bicycle and a backpack attributed to the subject. However, our investigation has determined that neither of these items belong to the shooter. In fact, we have positively identified and interviewed the owner of both of those items. I know there are many questions surrounding the timeline of events.

Again, I want to be clear, the purpose of our investigation is not to identify security failures or the failures of any agency on that day. I want to provide some details about what we've gleaned about the subject's movements and planning activities prior to the attack.

Starting in the spring of 2023, the subject made more than 25 different firearms-related purchases from online firearm's vendor using an alias. Throughout the first half of 2024, the subject made six chemical precursor-related purchases online of materials used to create the explosive devices recovered in the subject's vehicle and home. And again, for those purchases, he used aliases.

On July 3rd, the campaign announced its intention to hold a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. And on July 6th, the subject registered to attend the event. That same day, the investigation revealed our subject used an Internet search browser to query how far away was Oswald from Kennedy.

On July 7th, the subject traveled from his home to the site of the rally, spent approximately 20 minutes in the area, including the area around the AGR buildings, in what we believe was an early surveillance of the site before heading back to his home.

On July 12th, the day before the rally, the subject visited a local shooting range and practiced with what we believe was the same weapon used in the day of the attack.

The following timeline I'm about to cover of events highlights confirmed significant sightings of the subject in and around the rally site that day, established through an exhaustive review of police dash camera video and from cameras of six local area businesses. This timeline does not take into account much of the information from known radio communications between law enforcement on the ground, as the FBI is still working to confirm the exact timeline based on that information. However, we have included some information here to help explain his movements.

We assessed the ammunition used the day the attack was purchased legally that day. The subject brought 50 rounds at a local gun store. The morning of July 13th, the subject traveled from his home to the site of the rally at approximately 11:00 am and spent over an hour in the area before traveling home again.

Then at approximately 1:30 pm, the subject obtained a rifle from his residence and informed his parents he was heading to a nearby shooting range. At approximately 3:45 pm, the investigation has confirmed the subject again arrived in Butler at the site of the rally. He parked his vehicle and began flying his drone in proximity to the rally site from about 3:50 pm to just after 4:00 pm, for approximately 11 minutes.

The investigation found this drone flight was conducted approximately 200 yards from site of the rally by reverse engineering the metadata associated with the subject's drone. The ongoing analysis did not reveal any photos or video taken from the drone as there was no memory card recovered inside the device when it and the controller were discovered in the subject's vehicle.

The FBI is still working to determine if the subject was viewing footage on the drone's controller, and whether that may have revealed further insights that day into the security posture at the location from which he ultimately carried out his attack.

Just after approximately 4:00 pm, the subject left the scene in his vehicle and appeared to drive throughout the area in the vicinity of the shooting for a period of time. Shortly after approximately 5:00 pm, we assessed the shooter was identified by law enforcement as a suspicious person in the area of the AGR building and grounds.

A local officer took a photo of the subject and sent it to other SWAT Coordinators on scene as well as local command personnel. Approximately 30 minutes later, shortly after 5:30 pm, SWAT Coordinators observed the subject using a range finder and browsing news websites on his phone.

The next confirmed observation is at approximately 5:56 pm when the subject was seen walking in the vicinity of the AGR buildings carrying a backpack.

At approximately 6:08 pm, police dashcam video observed the subject traversing across the roof of the business in the direction where he ultimately fired his shots. Our assessment is that the subject climbed using HVAC equipment and piping outside of the AGR facility, made it onto the roof, and then traversed across multiple rooftops to get to his ultimate shooting position.

At approximately 6:11 pm, a local police officer was boosted onto the roof by another officer where he encountered the subject. The subject pointed the rifle at him, and the officer immediately dropped to the ground.

After approximately 25 to 30 seconds after this encounter, the subject fired eight rounds before being successfully neutralized by a United States Secret Service counter-sniper.

After the shooting, the FBI identified eight shell casings at the scene, and we assessed the subject fired eight rounds at the former president and into the crowd of attendees.

While the FBI's investigation may not have yet determined a motive, we believe the subject made significant efforts to conceal his activities. Additionally, we believe his actions also show careful planning ahead of the campaign rally.

I want to again thank the public for their assistance as we continue to carry out our investigation.

I also want to thank the many law enforcement agents and officers, victims and witnesses who have cooperated with this investigation. We know there are still lingering questions, but be assured the FBI will continue this investigation for the foreseeable future. Thank you.

Milhoan: Thank you, Deputy. Thank you, Kevin. We will begin our first question.

Reporter Question: Hey, thanks a lot for the transparency here. We really appreciate it. About the drone, what have you determined about whether there was a temporary airspace restriction in place at the time he flew it? And was there any counter-drone capability on site when he flew it? And then can you share anything about what the Behavioral Analysis Unit has concluded about his mental state, his selection of victims, his sophistication level? You kind of alluded to some of it, but - and does he fit the profile of other people who have carried out mass shootings as opposed to politically motivated violence, or is there a difference there?

Rojek: Regarding the drone, we would defer to Secret Service regarding any actions they took regarding either a no-fly zone or counter-drone operations.

Regarding consultation with BAU, I invited them to be part of the investigation during the first week. They came in, did initial assessment, and then they continued to work with us regarding an overall assessment. We - they believe, as we do, that the subject was highly intelligent. We know he attended college and maintained steady employment. We do still believe that he was a loner. As far as his association or any other activities related to his mental state, we are still continuing to assess all items from his social media accounts, from different electronic devices, and it will be, like, a process as we continue to develop profile associated with them.

Abbate: Just to add, this is something, of course, you know, much like all of you were very focused on. As Kevin mentioned, we have reflections of this individual's personality by virtue of the interviews we've done with the mother, father, co-workers, classmates, anyone and everyone we can, you know, make contact with. We're gathering that information. I think other than sort of the broad outline that Kevin provided, you know, we're relying on our behavioral analysis experts as they do in the course of their work to put all that together and, you know, render some of the assessments that you've referenced here.

I would also note, just as far as mental health, we are certainly looking into that. At this time, though, we're not ruling anything out, we have no information or evidence of mental health treatment, institutionalization, medications, or anything like that.

Reporter Question: Good morning. I had a question on - have you determined or found any gaps in communication timelines between the Secret Service and local law enforcement snipers? For example, we're hearing that Secret Service did not brief the local snipers the day before the rally.

Abbate: As we've already stated, we're collecting facts and information, as you've referenced radio communications, video from all around, and in furtherance of our investigation focused on the shooter motive, about whether any co-conspirators that type of stuff. We’re certainly assembling and collecting evaluating all of that, but we're going to defer to the commissions and other entities that I referenced earlier in terms of evaluating that from a security posture, perspective, preparation, and any failures within that.

We're not undertaking to do that here. It is evolving. I will tell you, having just visited with our field office and at the site over the weekend, the collection of information and evidence is ongoing to include all that stuff. It's a very painstaking and rigorous process to piece together, to verify and authenticate time stamps on video communications and all that. And we're still in the process of doing that to help others assess and render some of the conclusions that we're all interested in hearing just even beyond the FBI investigation.

Reporter Question: In a previous briefing, you guys mentioned a number of encrypted apps that the suspect had used. We also noticed the CEO of Gab said on social media this past week that they believe they found an account associated with the shooter and that he had been posting pro-Biden messages.

I wanted to see if you could clarify a little bit about or update a little bit about the encrypted apps that you were looking at. Have you been able to get into them? And also, whether there's any truth to this Gab CEO's comments.

FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert R. Wells: Hey, good morning. Bobby Wells here. I can take that question. So, encryption has been a challenge for us here in this investigation. I think initially, you know, we had a delay in getting in the phone, which we were able to overcome. As far as accounts that he used, there were a couple of foreign-based encrypted email accounts that he was using. And we have - again, we faced some delays, but we worked closely with our foreign partners and obtained as much information as we could about those accounts.

Obviously, the concern was to identify whether there were any potential co-conspirators or foreign involvement. Based on what we've seen in the review of those accounts, the subject appeared to be utilizing them primarily to purchase firearm components, chemicals, and other explosive components.

We also identified some additional accounts and identifying information, including aliases he was using on these encrypted platforms. As far as the Gab piece of your question, I don't have any additional information to provide on that at this time.

Reporter Question: I was just wondering if you could sort of shed some light into what, if anything, the gunman's parents knew or are sharing with you about this, you know, exhaustive planning which seems to be happening inside their house. I mean, were they aware of that, or have they explained to you why they were not?

Rojek: I will say, the parents have been extremely cooperative from the first night when we approached them and throughout the investigation.

So, I would caution against the word exhaustive when we talk about his planning. We know he did some prior pre-planning. We're seeing additional activity associated with his planning, but anything he was doing was online. He wasn't hoarding ammunition. He wasn't doing anything that I would say would significantly raise the suspicion of his parents in his home.

Abbate: And I don't know if we've said this before, but the parents have said in their interviews that they had no advanced knowledge of any of this. We do find that to be credible at this stage, but pending additional investigation, again, we're not ruling any possibility out.

As far as what was in the home, the chemicals and explosives-related materials, it's our understanding from the parents and others that the shooter had a long interest in science and things like this and had been doing experiments and things like this over a period of time. And for that reason, they weren't concerned that it was focused on committing an attack of this nature or harming other people.

Reporter Question: You said earlier that 86 different companies were providing - could potentially provide data. There's been reporting that he had really no social media presence. Was there any indication that he had any contacts, that he was participating in chat rooms, that he was communicating with anybody in an informal way to share technical information, even if it wasn't conspiratorial. And if you can also just clarify this notion that his social circle was essentially his immediate family. Did he have any friends? Have you uncovered any sense that he might have communicated with someone outside of his house?

Wells: So, regarding his social circle, we know that - you are correct, the primary social circle is his family. We have identified only a couple people who we would call his friends and most of those contacts were in fact dated.

Regarding his activity in social media accounts and gaming platforms, even in his gaming platforms we see very little interaction with other individuals, which is, obviously, outside the norm with what you normally see, particularly in gamers.

So, again, we continue to analyze his accounts, and we continue to look for any other individuals that he may have been associated with. And then when we identify with even an ancillary connection with the subject, we go out and conduct interviews. But to date, we have not found anyone that is really close to him in any type of social circle.

Reporter Question: Hi. Thank you so much for doing this call. You mentioned that former President Trump has agreed to be interviewed. Can you walk us through some of the questions or information that you think he could provide that would be relevant? Thank you so much.

Wells: So, the interview of the former President will be consistent with any other victim interview that we do. Again, we provide victims with support from our victim services, and we want to get his perspective on what he observed. So, just like any other witness to the crime, as well as get his perspective on what occurred to him during that event. But it is a standard victim interview like we would do for any other victim of crime under any other circumstances.

Milhoan: This is going to conclude the briefing for today. We've given you a lot of information that we haven't had an opportunity to say publicly thus far, so thank you for joining the call. Thank you to our briefers.