Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) released a preliminary investigative report on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
“As always, my investigation was focused on hard evidence and facts, specific observations guided by instinct and experience,” Higgins wrote. “My overall mission was to personally observe and investigate the available crime scene site, along with consideration of both anticipated and unanticipated interactions with witnesses, the crime scene landscape, hard evidence, corroborative evidence, and circumstantial evidence.”
Higgins, a member of the House Bipartisan Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, wrote that the position of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the alleged shooter, “did NOT offer excellent concealment from the southern counter-sniper team.”
Crooks “perfectly positioned himself to minimize the threat of counter-fire from the ground or the USSS counter-sniper teams,” Higgins said, noting that the would-be assassin’s “firing position was also several feet back from the actual peak of the AGR rooftop. By choosing this position, Crooks effectively minimized the sky-lined profile of his head and upper body.”
Higgins also called elements of the FBI’s handling of the situation “unheard of.”
The FBI “cleaned up biological evidence from the crime scene, which is unheard of,” he wrote. “Cops don’t do that, ever.”
When Higgins attempted to assess Crooks’ body, he found that it was “gone.”
“My effort to examine Crooks’ body on Monday, August 5, caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact… the FBI released the body for cremation 10 days after J13. On J23, Crooks was gone,” he explained. “Nobody knew this until Monday, August 5, including the County Coroner, law enforcement, Sheriff, etc.”
While the Butler County Coroner “technically had legal authority over the body,” the FBI permitted the cremation. “I spoke with the Coroner, and he would have never released Crooks’ body to the family for cremation or burial without specific permission from the FBI,” Higgins wrote.
“The coroner’s report and autopsy report are both ‘late.’ As of Monday, August 5, they were a week late. The problem with me not being able to examine the actual body is that I won’t know 100% if the coroner’s report and the autopsy report are accurate,” he added. “We will actually never know. Yes, we’ll get the reports and pictures, etc, but I will not ever be able to say with certainty that those reports and pictures are accurate according to my own examination of the body.”
Higgins noted that on July 23, the day that Crooks was cremated, both the Homeland Security Committee and the Oversight Committee had “begun House Committee jurisdictional investigation into J13, and Speaker Johnson 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?”
He stated that the “pattern of investigative scorched earth by the FBI” was “quite troubling.”
Higgins concluded, “I am prayerful that our Task Force can move forward effectively and professionally, guided by our shared love for America and our determination to seek full truth. Please know, as we continue our investigation into the attempted assassination of our former President, you can rely upon me as a solemn investigator of fact. It is with that spirit that I submit this confidential preliminary investigative report.”
The FBI has refuted Higgins’ claims that it released Crooks’ body for cremation 10 days after the assassination attempt.
An FBI spokesperson told Fox News that any ideas that the agency is impeding on congressional investigations are “inaccurate and unfounded.”
