Trump assassination attempt live updates: U.S. learned of Iranian plot to kill Trump weeks before shooting (2024)

Man with gun in backpack arrested near RNC

Ellison Barber

Dennis Romero

Ellison Barber and Dennis Romero

Delegates at the GOP's convention in Milwaukee took to wearing fake bandages on their ears as a show of solidarity with Trump.

During the convention, Trump has been wearing a large bandage on his ear, which was injured in the attempt on his life over the weekend.

Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., promised to "ensure accountability" for the attack on Trump.

"Make no mistake, the House is conducting an immediate and through investigation of these tragic events, and that work has already begun," Johnson said. "The American people deserve to know the truth, and we will ensureaccountability. I promise you that."

The Secret Service informed the Trump campaign in passing of a general uptick in threats against Trump, but the campaign was not made aware of any specific threats from an Iranian individual or group, a source familiar with the exchange told NBC News.

The U.S. obtained intelligence in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, which led the Secret Service to increase security around him.

There was no indication, however, that the plot had any link to Saturday’s assassination attempt. U.S. investigators say the evidence so far indicates the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, acted alone.

Reporting from Milwaukee

Three days since a Pennsylvania shooter opened fire at a campaign rally andwoundedTrump’s ear, the former president and his campaign have revealed next to nothing about his condition.

Trumpappeared in publicfor the first time last night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and wore an opaque bandage that covered most of his right ear.

A Trump adviser declined to answer specific questions today about his injury, telling NBC News that any statements about Trump’s health, his condition and the medical care related to his ear would come directly from him.

But Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who was the White House’s top doctor during the Trump administration, told NBC News today that he had examined Trump personally and that Trump was “doing great.”

Jackson alsosaid today on a podcastthat Trump is missing the top part of his ear and that he will wear a bandage on it for the foreseeable future.

Though Trump appeared publicly yesterday as he was formally nominated to be the GOP presidential nominee and just a few hoursafter he officially tapped GOP Sen. JD Vance of Ohioto be his running mate, Trump has not given any on-camera remarks or interviews since the shooting.

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A phone meeting will be held with senators tomorrow about the shooting in Butler, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office said.

The call will include briefings from the Justice Department, the Secret Service and the FBI, his office said.

Officials in Butler County say they are focusing on helping the families of the victims of Saturday's shooting, in which one man was killed and two others were injured.

Leslie Osche, chairman of the Butler County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement that she wants answers but that "we are waiting for the AUTHORIZED Investigative bodies to complete their investigation. We will follow that and in the event the time calls for us to take any action or respond in any way, we will do so.”

In the meantime, Osche said, the board is focused on making mental health resources available for those who need it and supporting affected families, particularly the family of Corey Comperatore, who was killed.

“The Comperatore family is a shining example of Butler County families who serve their community, care for one another and are active in their church,” Osche said.

Osche said the attack highlighted the importance of “investing in our young people, young men especially.”

“We can’t afford to let them become disconnected or to use their intelligence for evil rather than good,” Osche said. “We cannot let this tear us apart right now.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations today denied allegations of an Iranian assassination plot against Trump.

“These accusations are unsubstantiated and malicious,” the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations said in a report from the state-run news agency IRNA.

The Biden administration obtained intelligence about the plot in recent weeks, and the information led the Secret Service to ramp up security around Trump, three U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter said.

Iran considers Trump a criminal, the report in IRNA said.

“Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law for ordering the assassination of General Soleimani,” the mission said in the IRNA report. “Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice.”

The family of James Copenhaver, one of two victims wounded in the rally shooting, said in a statement that the 74-year-old is recovering from "life-altering" injuries and asked for privacy.

In the statement, Copenhaver thanked first responders, medics and hospital staff for their care and expressed his “thoughts and prayers” for the other victims of the attack, including Trump.

Copenhaver directed further questions to his attorney.

“The Copenhaver family would like to thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, and support as Jim and his family recover from this horrible, senseless, and unnecessary act of violence,” the statement concluded.

In an interview with NBC News’ Katy Tur, Eric Trump called for the Secret Service to “get to the bottom” of the security breakdown that allowed the gunman to climb to an unsecured rooftop.

“These are some of the finest people you’ll ever meet and they would have taken a bullet for him, and they almost did that day — but there was some breakdown outside of his ecosystem,” Eric Trump said. “There was some breakdown and they better get to the bottom of it.”

Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump from the roof of a building about 148 yards away from the stage where the former president was leading a rally. Crooks was outside the Secret Service’s security perimeter, making the building's security the primary responsibility of local law enforcement.

Local police officers notified the former president’s Secret Service detail that they were looking for a suspicious person in the area before Crooks took aim at Trump, according to a U.S. official.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said in an interview with ABC News that only “a short period of time” would have passed between such a warning and the shooting.

The Beaver County District Attorney’s office confirmed the county’s emergency services unit and SWAT team supported local law enforcement during Saturday's rally.

The DA’s office wrote in a statement they were “proud of the heroic actions taken by our officers.”

Local law enforcement has come under scrutiny for its role in providing security outside the Secret Service's perimeter, although the director of the federal agency has said it takes full responsibility for the breakdown in security that allowed the gunman to climb onto a nearby roof and fire.

As various congressional committees ramp up efforts to investigate the attempted assassination of Trump, one House Republican is pushing for an independent commission modeled after the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks.

"I believe that we just need an independent, nonpartisan group to look at that like we did after 9/11 to make sure that this type of thing never happens again,” South Carolina Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan told NBC News. “This was an abysmal failure of the security detail that day to leave a rooftop in a building with line of sight to the stage and the podium unguarded and uncovered with security.”

Duncan acknowledged the investigatory efforts that have already been launched by the House Oversight, Homeland Security and Judiciary committees, but said there are limits to Congress’ ability to get answers through a typical committee hearing process where each lawmaker has just five minutes to ask questions.

That would be especially cumbersome given the number of potential witnesses Duncan envisions: the director of the Secret Service, the head of Trump’s detail, the advance team that prepared the site, Pennsylvania State Police, local law enforcement, Department of Homeland Security employees and other witnesses.

Duncan argued an independent commission with subpoena power would be better able to collect all that information. “I think it’s a way to get the answers that American people deserve, and we as elected officials deserve,” he said.

The 9/11 Commission, which investigated the various failures that led to the 2001 attack on the United States, ultimately led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security to improve information sharing between America’s various intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

The former president has reached out to and spoken with a member of Corey Comperatore’s family, according to his sister Dawn Comperatore Schafer.

Comperatore, 50, a former fire chief, was attending the rally as a spectator when he was killed in the shooting.

Three U.S. officials briefed on the matter confirm that the U.S. obtained intelligence in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, and the information led the Secret Service to increase security around the former president.

The plot was firstreportedby CNN. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Upon learning of the increased threat, NSC directly contacted USSS at a senior level to be absolutely sure they continued to track the latest reporting,” a national security official told NBC News.

“USSS shared this information with the detail lead, and the Trump campaign was made aware of an evolving threat. In response, Secret Service surged resources and assets for the protection of former President Trump. All of this was in advance of Saturday.”

Donald Trump Jr. said that after he learned that his father had been wounded, it took 90 minutes before he knew the former president was safe and could speak to him on the phone.

He told Axios during an interview at the Republican National Convention today that his father was surprisingly calm at first and injected some levity into the conversation despite the heaviness of the moment.

"How's the hair?" he said he asked his father.

"The hair is fine, Don," he said in an impression of his father. "The hair is fine. A lot of blood in it, but it’s fine."

After days of pressure from several Asian American organizations, the New York Post has apologized for initially misidentifying the Trump shooter as a “Chinese man.”

The outlet added an editor’s note to its article on the shooting, explaining that its erroneous reporting had been “based on wrong information we obtained from sources.”

“We quickly corrected the mistake. We sincerely apologize for the error,” the note said.

Authorities identified Thomas Crooks, 20, who is white, as the shooter.

The correction comes after groups, including civil rights nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate and the Asian American Journalists Association called out the news outlet for not only the reporting error but failing to disclose the mistake for days. Many groups described the error as “dangerous,” potentially stoking anti-Asian sentiment.

“This isn’t a harmless mistake, it’s reckless misreporting that is actively fueling dangerous misinformation and anti-Asian racism,” Stop AAPI Hate posted on social media.

Stephanie Gosk

Emily Berk

Stephanie Gosk and Emily Berk

Reporting from Butler, PA

Following reports of a suspicious person, Butler Township police officers "boosted" one of their officers to gain a view of the rooftop where Crooks was, Butler Township Manager Tom Knights told NBC News.

Township police were stationed in the vicinity of the building, which to Knights' knowledge had no roof access from either inside or outside of the building. One officer held up another officer, who was able to grab ahold of the ledge, Knights said.

"So when he was able to pull his head up over the roof, he did in fact see an individual ... with a weapon," Knights said.

Crooks turned his weapon toward the officer, who Knights said was unable to reach his radio or firearm. The officer released his hands in a "defensive" move and dropped 8 feet to the ground, injuring his ankle.

According to Knights, three different security meetings were held prior to the rally, as early as July 8, and the building was mentioned in at least two of those meetings. He was not present but familiar with the conversation, and noted that the building was outside of the Secret Service’s established perimeter.

Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a resolution honoring Corey Comperatore, who died shielding his family during the attempted assassination.

The resolution also condemns any form of political violence. Gaetz said the resolution will “commemorate” Comperatore’s bravery and his “unwavering commitment to public service.”

Moskowitz also highlighted Comperatore's bravery, saying: "He deserved the ability to go to a political rally and return home. I hope that my colleagues will join us in honoring his sacrifice."

A couple who witnessed Donald Trump’s would-be assassin shimmy along a nearby roof and set up his shot panicked for several minutes as they shouted for law enforcement intervention and watched as those efforts failed.

Mike DiFrischia, and his wife, Amber, said they flagged a nearby police officer as soon as they saw a man begin to Army crawl up the roof near the start of Trump’s presidential campaign rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“We started hollering to cops, ‘Hey, he’s right there!’ We could see him on the roof,” DiFrischia, 46, told NBC News.

DiFrischia said the officer, who was wearing all black with a police badge on his back, was too close to the building and could not see the shooter.

Trump was already speaking at this point, DiFrischia said.

The urgency rapidly grew when the man on the roof, later identified by authorities as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was a quarter of the way to the top, DiFrischia said. That’s when the crowd noticed he was holding a firearm.

“Next thing you know, somebody behind me said, ‘That guy’s got a gun!’ Everybody started running and freaking out,” DiFrischia said. “I moved over and I could see the gun with my own two eyes.”

DiFrischia said he watched a different uniformed law enforcement officer attempt to pull himself up on the roof that the gunman was on but quickly release when he got about chin level.

“As soon as he got pulled up on the roof, he just let go and fell down to the ground,” DiFrischia said. “I said, man something must have startled him.”

At that point, DiFrischia, an avid hunter with 40 years of firearm experience, said there was nothing else to do but pull out his phone and start recording.

“I knew he was now getting into position to shoot something,” he said. “I was like, my God, my heart dropped.”

His footage begins withCrooks lying on his stomach near the top of the roof. It ends with Crooks dead.

“I heard one shot and then it was bam, bam, bam, bam,” Amber said. “And then it was all over.”

A Texas YouTuber who runs a popular gun enthusiast channel is distancing himself from the gunman who opened fire on Trump.

Photos verified by NBC News show the shooter, identified by law enforcement as Thomas Matthew Crooks, wearing a Demolition Ranch shirt on the day of the shooting. The images began circulating after Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, was killed by at least one Secret Service sharpshooter.

In a nearly six-minute-long video Monday, Matt Carriker, who runs the YouTube channel Demolition Ranch, said: “We were shocked and confused to find this out. The shooter who tried to assassinate Trump was wearing merch from my channel, wearing a Demolition Ranch T-shirt. And that sucked to see that.”

“Yeah, that was rough,” he added.

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Federal investigators are reviewing Crooks' shipping history as part of the investigation into the fatal shooting at Trump's rally over the weekend, according to a joint intelligence bulletin.

"Over the last several months, Crooks received multiple packages, including some marked as possibly containing hazardous material, according to a review of his shipping history," the bulletin said.

A search following Saturday's shooting uncovered three suspected improvised explosive devices, which were all rendered safe. Two were found in Crooks' vehicle near the event and the third was at Crooks' residence, the bulletin said.

The intelligence document also confirms reports that Crooks purchased 50 rounds of ammunition at a local shop in Bethel Park on Saturday prior to arriving at the rally.

A source briefed on the intelligence confirms the contents of a Joint Intelligence Bulletin put out Monday by the FBI and the Department Homeland Security warning that extremists may carry out attacks they perceive to be in retaliation for the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

“The FBI and DHS remain concerned about the potential for follow-on or retaliatory acts of violence following this attack, particularly given that individuals in some online communities have threatened, encouraged, or referenced acts of violence in response to the attempted assassination,” the bulletin said, according to the source.

The source said the bulletin warns that election-related infrastructure is believed to be under heightened threat of attack. No specific targets were mentioned.

The four-page bulletin was first reported by Politico. It comes after FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told reporters Sunday the FBI is seeing increased violence rhetoric online.

“We are seeing, although the rhetoric regarding threats of violence has already increased online, we’re seeing that tick up,” he said.

Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle acknowledged that "the buck stops with me" and that the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump "should have never happened" in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" that aired today.

"I’m being told that the shooter was actually identified as a potential threat of suspicion. Units started responding to seek that individual out. Unfortunately, with the rapid succession of how things unfolded, by the time that individual was eventually located, they were on the rooftop and were able to fire off at the former president," Cheatle said.

She said the building the shooter fired from had a sloped roof, making the securing of it challenging, so a decision was made to put people inside the building. Secret Service was tasked with securing that inner perimeter, while local law enforcement was responsible for the outer perimeter, she said.

But Cheatle took full responsibility for the horrifying incident. "I am the director of the Secret Service. It was unacceptable, and it’s something that shouldn’t happen again," she said.

Warm tributes have been paid to Corey D. Comperatore, 50, who was shot and killed at the rally where former President Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.

An online obituary posted by a local funeral home painted a portrait of a loving and much-loved family man. Born in 1974, he went to Freeport High School and worked as a tooling engineer.

He spent 10 years in the U.S. Army Reserves and was chief of the Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department in the early 2000s.

He is survived by his wife, Helen, and their two daughters, Allyson and Kaylee.

"His courage was not the loud and boisterous kind; it was the courage of quiet resilience, the strength to be vulnerable, and the bravery to lead with love," the obituary said.

"Corey’s legacy is not just in the major milestones he achieved but in the small acts of kindness that marked his everyday life," it continued.

His funeral will be held in private but friends will be able to pay their respects from 2-4 and 6-8 pm at Laube Hall in Freeport.