The Heritage Oversight Project revealed on July 22 that a mobile phone linked to the residence and workplace locations of aspiring assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was in the Gallery Place building in D.C., which is home to the FBI’s headquarters and a mall.
Hours after the attempted murder of former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Oversight Project, a division of the Heritage Foundation, launched a geolocation investigation.
A counter-sniper from the Secret Service shot and killed 20-year-old Crooks after he opened fire on Trump and the audience just after 6:11 p.m. ET. A rifle shell fired from around 130 yards away would have instantly killed Trump if he hadn’t made a precisely timed turn of his head, according to experts.
“On the night of the incident, we started our inquiry,” an Oversight Project representative stated to Blaze News. Since then, we have been working nonstop.
Leaders of the Oversight Project expressed their expectation that other authorities in the domains of criminal investigations and geolocation searches will come forward to support their inquiry. Concerns about the lack of transparency and thoroughness in the operations of the Secret Service, FBI, and other federal law enforcement agencies led to the start of the inquiry.
Washington, D.C. is the only place in America where you can perform so poorly at work and yet receive a promotion or avoid termination.
Following a triangulation of the travel routes of each phone, the investigators utilized Crooks’ work and home locations to identify mobile phones that had characteristics of both places. They employed phone identification numbers that are commercially accessible and often used to target advertisements at phone users.
On June 26, 2023, a phone linked with Crooks’ workplace at a Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, nursing facility reportedly traveled to the Gallery Place center in D.C. That day, the phone “pinged” from that area seven or eight times.
Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin told Blaze News that Gallery Place, a mixed-use structure built above the Chinatown Metro station, is home to the FBI’s headquarters on the top floors in addition to a number of retail establishments and eateries.
According to Seraphin, “that is the closest [place] off-site to the Washington Field Office that I’m aware of.” “Agents function from Gallery Place, despite their assignment to Washington Field.”
According to Oversight Project investigators, the phone linked to that ID most likely belonged to someone who paid Crooks a visit at his workplace. They stated that they didn’t think Crooks’ phone was involved.
Geolocation technology searches for frequent locations that both the user and the phone visit using the unique ID that each cell phone has.
Each gadget possesses an ad ID. An Oversight Project spokeswoman likened it to your mobile phone’s Social Security number. It is unique and helps to identify the phone. It cannot be removed. You can only have one ID per phone, but you can refresh and get a new one.
According to investigators, they discovered at least nine devices connected to Crooks’ Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, residence and place of employment. They assert that Crooks was the owner of at least two of those phones. A counter-sniper murdered Crooks on July 13, revealing a cell phone beneath his corpse.
According to geolocation data, researchers discovered a device linked to Crooks that made two trips from Bethel Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh, to Butler, which is located around 55 miles north of Crooks’ residence. July 4 and July 8, 2024, were the dates of such excursions, according to the Oversight Project. On July 12, that phone was completely inactive.
They say the gadget also made a visit to a Butler Home Depot. According to a report from U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Crooks bought a ladder at a Home Depot shortly after 9:30 a.m. The investigators don’t believe Crooks used his ladder to access the roof directly north of the fairground.
“Perhaps the president can fire you when he wakes up from his siesta.”
Theoretically, Crooks traveled to the Butler location to spy on people before the Trump event at the Butler Farm Show Inc. fairgrounds on July 13.
On March 1, a different Crooks-related device traveled from Pittsburgh to Boston’s Logan International Airport and then to a motel in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts. On March 4, the gadget made its way back to Pittsburgh.
On August 30, 2023, a phone device associated with Crooks visited Allegheny Arms in Bethel Park, according to the report.
According to the study, the devices associated with Crooks’ residential and workplace addresses also made visits to a number of locations in Bethel Park, such as the YMCA, a structure housing a golf course and a karate school, a garden shop, and a Planet Fitness.
On X, Oversight Project Director Mike Howell stated, “We are eager to help with valid investigations and give more information.”
Howell said, “Due to the connective tissues between that entity and the FBI, USSS, and other entities, we will not be sharing more material with the congressional task force for the safety of whistleblowers and our inquiry.”
The public debate over how a 20-year-old man with no prior firearms experience could enter the AGR manufacturing center north of the fairground, climb up to a roof with a clear view of the podium, and fire six or more times at a former president before killing himself will surely intensify with the release of the Oversight Project report.