Rep. Clay Higgins’ independent probe challenges FBI narrative on Trump assassination attempt

Rep. Clay Higgins is armed with evidence that he says counters parts of the FBI’s official narrative of the July 13 attempted assassination of Donald Trump and plans to supercharge his independent investigation in the next Congress.

Mr. Higgins, Louisiana Republican, is a member of the bipartisan House task force investigating the assassination attempt. The task force concluded its investigation on Thursday and will release its final report soon.

The congressman and former law enforcement officer has also been working independently on a supplemental investigation into evidence that he said the FBI has withheld or misrepresented.

“I’m not done by a long shot,” Mr. Higgins told The Washington Times. “There’s many things that are not covered here in this report that I have in my investigative file.”

One of his main investigative findings counters the official FBI narrative about what stopped Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who fired at the Republican presidential candidate at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Crooks fired eight rounds, and one of the bullets grazed Mr. Trump’s ear. His gunfire also killed a rallygoer and injured two others.

The FBI said a Secret Service countersniper neutralized Crooks with a single kill shot.

Mr. Higgins does not dispute that the countersniper’s shot killed Crooks. Before that shot, he said, Crooks was injured by gunfire from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit and was unable to continue shooting.

The Butler County officer, whom Mr. Higgins previously identified as Aaron Zaliponi, testified that the single shot he fired hit Crooks. The FBI disputed that account. Still, Mr. Higgins said the physical evidence, his ballistics analysis and layered expert testimony corroborate Mr. Zaliponi’s account.

“His one round — shot No. 9 at nine seconds from the first round fire — hit the buttstock of Crooks’ weapon, smashed that weapon into his jawline,” he said. “There’s a corresponding injury on Crooks’ jaw that I’ve observed from the medical examiner’s report, and those photographs precisely match the broken buttstock of Crooks’ rifle.”

The FBI, which has not provided any public updates on its investigation since Aug. 28, said it had no forensic evidence indicating that the round Mr. Zaliponi fired hit Crooks or his rifle. The bureau’s laboratory division tested Crooks’ rifle and concluded it was fully operational.

An evidence photo of the rifle that the FBI released does show damage to the buttstock.

In response to The Times’ request for comment on Mr. Higgins’ findings, the FBI reiterated the Aug. 28 comments and said it had “nothing additional” to report.

Ariel Goldschmidt, the Allegheny County chief medical examiner who conducted the autopsy of Crooks, testified at a House task force hearing in September. He said his examination of Crooks found one bullet fragment and related wound that came from a single shot to the head.

Mr. Higgins asked Dr. Goldschmidt whether he knew what happened to the local officer’s shot. Dr. Goldschmidt said he didn’t know.

Mr. Higgins asked whether injuries on Crooks’ shoulder could have been caused by a combined impact of Mr. Zaliponi’s shot hitting Crooks’ rifle and fragmenting and the Secret Service sniper’s shot.

“No, it’s not possible,” Dr. Goldschmidt said.

Nine-second pause

According to Mr. Higgins’ timeline, Crooks got off eight shots before Mr. Zaliponi fired his round nine seconds into the shooting. Crooks did not fire any additional rounds before the kill shot from the Secret Service countersniper at 18 seconds.

Absent from the FBI’s narrative, he said, is what happened in those nine seconds between Mr. Zaliponi’s shot and the round from the Secret Service sniper.

Crooks “fired five rounds in his final three seconds of shooting,” Mr. Higgins said. “If he had not been stopped by the Butler County ESU shot No. 9, then you would presume he would have continued to fire at that rate, which means he would have dumped 15 more rounds in his remaining nine seconds of life had it not been for the Butler County ESU shot.”

Mr. Higgins said the FBI had already begun developing its narrative and interacting with the medical examiner when information about Mr. Zaliponi’s shot was released. Dr. Goldschmidt knew only about the Secret Service sniper’s shot while conducting Crooks’ autopsy.

“So I think the FBI was too fast on some of their own conclusions in the initial 24-36 hours of the investigation,” he said. “And once they had moved forward in that direction, they were hesitant to back up.”

Mr. Higgins said the Secret Service has “been sort of protective” of that narrative.

“These guys were on an elevated position with the most advanced optics in the world and somehow a SWAT operator — a badass, yes, and a well-trained guy, yes — somehow a SWAT operator from Butler County located the shooter, got on target with the shooter, squeezed off a round and stopped him faster than the entire apparatus that was deployed by the Secret Service,” he said.

Missing evidence

The autopsy report that the medical examiner submitted to the House task force was missing postmortem X-rays.

Mr. Higgins said he learned from reading a Pennsylvania State Police report that the X-rays revealed bullet fragments that were not retrieved from Crooks’ body and retained for evidence.

“Who made that decision? Was it the FBI?” he said. “They were supposed to be present during the autopsy. I don’t have a clean answer on that.

“He was released for cremation by the FBI. So you understand, the fragments are gone,” Mr. Higgins said.

The FBI told The Times that it was present during the autopsy to collect evidence, but its investigative focus is the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump. The Pennsylvania State Police investigated Crooks’ death.

“The FBI is aware that the medical examiner performed a postmortem X-ray on Crooks’ body, which revealed small bullet fragments. The medical examiner extracted one bullet from the body during the autopsy and an FBI agent collected that evidence,” the bureau said in an emailed statement. “The fragment, item 80, was examined at the FBI Laboratory.”

The House task force’s interim report said the FBI had “a small copper colored metal bullet jacket fragment” that was recovered from Crooks’ upper right back during the autopsy.

The Times reached out to the Pennsylvania State Police for a copy of its report and was told “any reports would be considered non-public and we wouldn’t be able to provide them.”

Ballistics

Mr. Higgins said he conducted ballistics research and testing because the FBI did not share its analysis with him or the task force. Other task force members also expressed frustration that the FBI withheld critical information, citing the need to protect the investigation.

The FBI did allow Mr. Higgins to go to its lab in Quantico, Virginia, to examine two bullet fragments: the one recovered from Crooks’ back and one collected from the roof where he was positioned during the shooting.

“I’ve had limited access, as controlled by the FBI. So I’ve had to get the original ammunition, each of which are law enforcement only controlled ammunition from Butler County ESU and from the Secret Service,” Mr. Higgins said.

The manufacturers of the ammunition told him they could confirm from an examination whether the fragments came from their bullet.

“But absent their access, I can’t confirm either of them,” Mr. Higgins said. “We just don’t know. We know it came from one of two rifles.”

In his limited interactions with the FBI, Mr. Higgins said he observed “a notable lack of investigative sharing,” adding, “They’re operating in silos.”

He said he asked the FBI personnel working in the laboratory at Quantico whether they had read the autopsy report or the Pennsylvania State Police report to question the location of the other bullet fragments.

Mr. Higgins said they did not and told him: “It’s not our job, congressman. We just examine what they give us.”

‘Chair with a gavel’

Republican leaders want Mr. Higgins to continue his investigation. He said he expects to “be in a chair with a gavel” — potentially a new subcommittee under the Oversight and Accountability Committee.

“The full truth should eventually be revealed,” he said. “And because my investigative conclusion is at variance with the FBI investigative conclusion and the narrative being supported by the medical examiner and the Secret Service … it puts me in a position where I have to slowly and calmly present all the evidence to drag along these huge agencies to be in alignment with what I know to be the truth.”

Mr. Higgins has also looked into Crooks’ background to try to assess his motive for the shooting. The FBI has not identified a motive.

“I think Crooks went mad, which you have to ask yourself is why,” he said.

Mr. Higgins has not been allowed to interview Crooks’ parents but has spoken at length with their attorney and talked with others who knew Crooks.

“I’ve spent hours on the ground in Crooks’ neighborhood. I’ve spoken to members of the board of the college where he was scheduled to attend. They were very excited to get him. He was a highly accomplished engineering student,” he said. “What caused this guy to become a shooter talking to himself in the final year of his life?”

That’s one of the key questions Mr. Higgins hopes to answer as his investigation progresses.