The FBI director, Christopher Wray, told a Congressional committee on Wednesday that President Trump’s would-be assassin researched Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassination of John F. Kennedy the day he registered to attend the Pennsylvania rally. 

Mr. Wray, during his appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, reported that a week before the assassination attempt against Trump — which wounded one bystander and critically injured others — Crooks searched on Google: “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” 

That same day, Mr. Wray reported, the shooter registered to attend Trump’s rally at Butler, Pennsylvania. 

“That’s a search that obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind,” Mr. Wray said.

Crooks’s search history suggests he was “broadly interested” in various public figures though became “very focused” on Trump on around July 6. 

Mr. Wray also confirmed that there is currently no evidence to suggest that Crooks was working in cahoots with any individual or organization when he attempted to take the 45th President’s life. 

He also added that prevailing descriptions of the gunman as a “loner” seem to fit with what they’ve seen on his devices. 

“There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of interactions between him, face-to-face or digital, with a lot of people,” Mr. Wray noted. “That doesn’t mean there’s not any.” 

He added that Crooks had fewer-than-expected contacts in his devices. 

Mr. Wray also notes that gaining access to Crooks’s phone was a “significant technical challenge” and that the gunman was communicating via encrypted messaging apps. 

Over the course of the hearing, Mr. Wray also confirmed that they found evidence that the gunman had flown a drone over the site two hours before the rally began. The drone was reportedly in the air for 11 minutes.

“We’re still trying to figure out exactly what he saw,” he said, adding that FBI experts think he was likely live-streaming the video footage. 

While they have been able to make out the flight path of the drone while it was in the air, they are still trying to determine what the shooter “could have seen in these 11 minutes.” 

Mr. Wray also reported that the FBI confirmed that Crooks brought a five foot ladder to the rally, though he also said that investigators did not find the ladder at the scene. As a result, it remains unclear how Crooks managed to get on the roof. 

Crooks also visited a shooting range a day before his attempted assassination of Trump, and investigators believe he “probably” used a weapon similar to the one he fired on July 13. 

Throughout the hearing, the FBI chief maintained that they have not found a “clear motive” for the shooting, but affirmed that investigators are “digging hard” to uncover more information about the shooter.