The FBI impeded further investigation into the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump by releasing the alleged shooter's body for cremation little more than a week after the incident, a U.S. congressman said.
Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., a member of the bipartisan House task force investigating the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, blasted the bureau for releasing Thomas Matthew Crooks' body to his family for cremation just 10 days after the shooting.
"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 [July 13]," Higgins wrote in his preliminary investigative report to Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., chair of the task force.
"On J23 [July 23], Crooks was gone. Nobody knew this until Monday, August 5, including the County Coroner, law enforcement, Sheriff, etc. Yes, Butler County Coroner technically had legal authority over the body, but 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 added that the coroner's report and autopsy report, as of Aug. 5, 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," Higgins wrote. "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.
"Again, similar to releasing the crime scene and scrubbing crime scene biological evidence ... this action by the FBI can only be described by any reasonable man as an obstruction to any following investigative effort."
Higgins noted that Crooks was cremated on July 23, the day Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., announced the House would form a bipartisan task force to investigate the shooting.
The Homeland Security and Oversight committees already had begun probing the incident.
"Why, then, by what measure, would the FBI release his body to the family for cremation? This pattern of investigative scorched earth by the FBI is quite troubling," Higgins wrote.
The lawmaker also slammed the FBI for its handling of the crime scene, stating the law enforcement agency released the area after three days.
"The FBI cleaned up biological evidence from the crime scene, which is unheard of," Higgins wrote. "Cops don't do that, ever."
He also wrote:
- "I interviewed several First Responders who expressed everything from surprise to dismay to suspicion regarding the fact that the FBI released the crime scene so early after J13."
- "It should be noted that the FBI was fully aware of the fact that Congress would be investigating J13. The FBI does not exist in a vacuum. They had to know that releasing the J13 crime scene would injure the immediate observations of any following investigation."