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The parents of the 20-year-old who shot Donald Trump last month have retained a lawyer as the FBI investigates the attempted assassination, according to a new report.
An unnamed family member told The Daily Mail that Crooks’s parents have sought the services of Pittsburgh-based law firm Quinn Logue. The move comes as the FBI continues to question how much Matthew and Mary Crooks knew about their son’s plan to assassinate Trump, the Mail reports.
Matthew Crooks is interested in guns and has sold firearms to family members in the past, the source told the Mail. “The FBI still very much has questions about how much they knew and how [Thomas Crooks] slipped through the net,” the individual said.
Quinn Logue specializes in both criminal and civil law, including wrongful death and personal injury, according to its website.
Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. The 20-year-old, who shot Trump in the ear, also killed attendee Corey Comperatore and injured two others. Crooks was shot dead by a sniper at the scene.
The FBI is still investigating how Crooks was able to carry out the shooting from a rooftop near the rally stage.
In the weeks since, the Secret Service has been heavily critized. Last week, “five or six” agents were placed on leave as “disciplinary action,” according to MSNBC.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told CBS News the “mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle stepped down last month after calls from lawmakers for her resignation. Her replacement, Ronald Rowe, later admitted that the agency had failed “on multiple levels.”
“That roofline should’ve been covered,” he said earlier this month. “We should’ve had more eyes on that.”
Recently released body camera footage from Pennsylvania law enforcement also suggested that local officers warned Secret Service agents about the building that Crooks climbed on top of, and shot from.
“I f****ing told them they need to post the f****** guys over here,” an officer said in the video.
The Independent has contacted the FBI, Matthew Crooks and Quinn Logue for comment.
Source: independent.co.uk
