A Republican member of the House task force investigating the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump said he doesn't yet "buy" an explanation by the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security that the alleged would-be assassin acted alone.
Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., told DailyMail.com that Thomas Matthew Crooks' alleged motivation to kill Trump remains unknown.
"I don't understand, and I don't have any answers yet to help me understand how the [Secret] Service and DHS came out so quickly and said – and I think the FBI as well, but I'll have to check that – and said, he operated alone," Waltz said of Crooks on Wednesday.
"How do you know that mere days into your investigation?"
Waltz then added: "You can't tell us his motive, but you could tell us he operated alone? You can't get into these encrypted overseas accounts, but you can tell us he acted alone? So, I don't buy that yet."
Waltz said he was worried that a foreign entity or other third-party could have been involved in the attack, during which Crooks allegedly shot Trump in the ear, killed one spectator, and wounded two at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Crooks, who had been noticed at the site by law enforcement well before the shooting, was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
The New York Post reported that Waltz said Crooks, 20, used foreign encrypted messaging accounts on platforms based in Germany, Belgium, and New Zealand.
"Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a healthcare aid 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?" Waltz said, the Post reported.
Dr. Walid Phares, a noted author, professor, and Mideast expert, wrote a Newsmax column in which he said the Islamic regime in Iran is trying to assassinate Trump, with hopes of doing so by election day on Nov. 5.
"It's really what's coming out around it [the shooting] that is so disturbing," Waltz said, DailyMail.com reported. "And for me, the thing that's most disturbing is that we have ongoing plots from Iran to take out a former president, leading candidate, and that a Pakistani national was just arrested after making a down payment for hitmen, and it's barely even being covered in the news."
The FBI found explosives in Crooks' car, which was parked near the rally site, and at his parents' house.
"I don't know of many 19-year-old kids who could make multiple IEDs with a remote detonator on their own," Waltz said. "Why didn't that get picked up if he's searching that online or buying literature on how to do that?"