GOP rep says would-be Trump assassin had encrypted messaging accounts in 3 foreign countries, rips intelligence community

The gunman who nearly assassinated former President Donald Trump used encrypted messaging accounts on platforms in multiple foreign countries, according to a GOP representative appointed to a congressional task force investigating the assassination attempt.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) — a member of the Bipartisan House Task Force on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump — revealed the three countries linked to encrypted messaging accounts used by would-be Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks.

'They need to be releasing information as they come across it, because this wasn’t an isolated incident.'

Last month, Waltz said, "Now, what we know, and this was on the briefing we just received, he had three encrypted overseas accounts the FBI is trying to get into."

"Well, we know that they were based in servers overseas," he added. "And so you've got to work over there with the FBI liaisons overseas to start getting into them through their authorities."

On Wednesday, Waltz informed reporters in Chicago: "We still haven’t learned a lot. We haven’t learned that much about those overseas accounts. We do know that they were in, if I get this correctly, Belgium, New Zealand, and Germany."

The House lawmaker asked, "Why does a 19-year-old kid, who is a health care aide, need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad, where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into? That’s a question I’ve had since day one."

The FBI, Secret Service, and Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General are conducting their own investigations into the Trump assassination attempt.

Waltz — who is retired from the U.S. Army Special Forces and is a former White House and Pentagon adviser — slammed the FBI and Secret Service for apparently withholding information regarding their investigations into last month's Trump assassination attempt at the campaign rally held in Butler, Pennsylvania.

"They need to be releasing information as they come across it, because this wasn’t an isolated incident," Waltz declared. "The threats are continually Iran’s threats."

Waltz — who serves on the Intelligence, Armed Services, and Oversight Committees — referenced the alleged murder-for-hire plot to assassinate Trump and other U.S. officials involving a Pakistani national with suspected ties to the Iranian government.

Before the shooting, the National Security Council had reportedly warned the Secret Service and the Trump campaign that there were intelligence reports that Iran was actively plotting an assassination attempt on the former president.

Iran rejected accusations that it had ambitions to assassinate Trump.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Iran "strongly rejects any involvement in the recent armed attack on Trump or claims about Iran’s intention for such an action."

Kanaani continued, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to pursue legal action against Trump for his direct role in the crime of assassinating Martyr General Qassem Soleimani."

Soleimani was the commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and killed in a U.S. drone attack in Baghdad in January 2020.

The FBI reportedly was scheduled to brief the 13 members of the House task force on Wednesday. Waltz said he hopes the FBI will provide insight into the "ridiculously flawed" security detail at the Trump rally on July 13, 2024.

Crooks accessed a roof just 130 yards from the stage where Trump delivered his campaign speech. The shooter was able to fire eight shots — including one that struck Trump in his right ear — before being neutralized. Crooks shot and killed 50-year-old Trump supporter and firefighter Corey Comperatore. Two other rallygoers — 54-year-old James Copenhaver and 57-year-old David Dutch — were injured during the shooting.

Blaze News reached out to the FBI and Secret Service for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

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