FBI cracked Trump shooter’s phone with tech from Israel’s Cellebrite – report

Software enabled agents to unlock phone in 40 minutes, but didn’t yield incriminating information; motive of slain shooter, son of normal, loving, pro-Trump parents, still unclear

An undated image obtained 14 July, 2024 shows a driver's license photograph of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspected shooter of former US president Donald Trump. (Handout / AFP)
An undated image obtained 14 July, 2024 shows a driver's license photograph of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspected shooter of former US president Donald Trump. (Handout / AFP)

The FBI used Israeli technology to break into the phone of former United States president Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the investigation.

Investigators used Cellebrite’s tech to unlock the phone of Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel, Pennsylvania, who opened fire at a Trump rally in nearby Butler on Saturday. Crooks, who used an assault rifle legally purchased by his father 11 years prior, killed one person and critically injured two, and one of his bullets grazed the Republican candidate’s right ear. A US Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks on the spot.

The shooter’s phone was recovered from his body and was cracked to help determine his motive, which remains elusive. Investigators are considering the possibility that Crooks used two phones, after discovering a phone with a dead battery at his home in Bethel Park, where he lived with his parents, the Post reported.

People familiar with the investigation were quoted as saying that cracking Crooks’ phone provided investigators with some leads but did not immediately yield “derogatory information” — signs of criminal links or plans.

The phone was reportedly a relatively new model, which can be more difficult for law enforcement to open. The Pittsburgh FBI office, which did not have Cellebrite’s technology, sent the phone to the FBI office in Quantico, Virginia, where agents were able to crack open the phone within 40 minutes using the technology, the report said.

The paper noted that phone cracking can take months in many federal investigations. In this case, opening Crooks’ phone was an urgent priority for both the FBI and Cellebrite, according to the people familiar with the investigation.

A home believed to be connected to the shooter in the assassination attempt of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Bethel Park, Pa. Investigators are hunting for any clues about what may have driven Thomas Matthew Crooks to try to assassinate Trump. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The newspaper cited two neighbors and Crooks’ school counselor as saying that Crooks and his parents were normal. One neighbor described him as a “quiet, dorky kid” typical of the neighborhood, and said he used to smile and wave at her when she would see him on daily walks.

The counselor, who worked with Crooks’ older sister, denied reports that the shooter had been bullied while at school. He was said to describe Crooks as “quiet,” “intelligent,” “cooperative” and “well-spoken,” and Crooks’ parents as “very, very nice.”

Two people familiar with the situation were cited by the Post as saying that Crooks’ mother and father, both of whom are licensed social workers, were loving parents, though possibly not attuned to specifics of their son’s life.

Though some Republican lawmakers — and their Israeli counterparts — were quick to blame leftist rhetoric for inciting the assassination attempt, investigators have yet to discover Crooks’ political mindset, and he had no known political writings or social media posts.

Republican nominee and former US President Donald Trump, bleeding from his ear after an assassination attempt, gestures as he is surrounded by US Secret Service agents while leaving the stage at a campaign rally, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The neighbors cited by the Post recalled seeing Trump signs on the family’s lawn. Crooks was previously reported to be registered as a Republican, but had contributed $15 to a Democratic political action committee on January 20, 2020 — the day US President Joe Biden was sworn in — before Crooks was of voting age.

Cellebrite, which is listed on the NASDAQ, has come under scrutiny from rights groups in the past over the sale of its services to repressive regimes, including Pakistan and Belarus. The company claims its product, which connects physically to phones, can recover even the remnants of some deleted files. The company, founded in 1999, is headquartered in Petah Tikva.

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