The gunman who attempted to kill Donald Trump had researched a member of the Royal Family as he planned targets for assassination, the FBI has revealed.
Thomas Crooks was killed by US Secret Service snipers seconds after he opened fire on the former President during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Armed with a rifle, the 20-year-old clipped Mr Trump, 78, on the ear and killed another male spectator.
FBI investigators told members of Congress that Crooks had gone online to ‘scope out’ a number of potential high-profile assassination targets – which included an unnamed member of the Royal Family.
The revelation came after federal agents downloaded the contents of two of Crooks’ mobile phones.
The wannabe hitman also looked up Christopher Wray, the FBI’s director, and Merrick Garland, the US attorney general.
Investigators also disclosed that Crooks’ devices contained images of President Joe Biden and Trump, as well as the dates of both Trump rallies and the Democratic National Convention, which are due to take place in Chicago next month.
News of the FBI’s discovery came as it was revealed Crooks had written an ominous warning on a gaming platform before he tried to murder Trump.
DailyMail.com confirmed US Senators were told the 20-year-old killer posted on Steam: ‘July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds.’
On July 13 he opened fire on Republican nominee Mr Trump from a roof just 130 yards away from the rally stage in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Following he assassination attempt, the US Secret Service was accused of incompetence over its failure to protect Trump.
The agency was alerted to a ‘suspicious person’ close to the stage an hour before the attack took place, and Crooks was booted out of the venue after setting off a metal detector.
Senators also learned that Crooks was spotted by Secret Service agents 10 minutes before Mr Trump walked out onstage – a full 20 minutes before he was shot.
Sources on the call told DailyMail.com that over an hour passed from the shooter being spotted to his initial shot. Even more troubling, Secret Service counter snipers saw Crooks on the roof 20 minutes before he shot the former president.
At 5.52pm, the ‘suspicious’ shooter was spotted on the roof by counter snipers.
Trump walked out onto the stage at 6.02pm.
Then at around 6.12pm Crooks’ first shots rang out.
‘That is a crazy amount of time they let pass before firing,’ the source said.
Mike Lee, the Republican Senator for Utah, confirmed this in a tweet Wednesday afternoon.
‘They had identified the shooter as “suspicious” a full 19 minutes before the shooting,’ he posted.
Crooks was shoot seconds after attempting to murder the former President, with his dead body found on a roof just 130 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking.
The FBI also found he had two cell phones, the second of which was found at home with only 27 contacts.
Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle has since been slammed for the botched protection operation.
She has been under growing pressure since it emerged that her agents were repeatedly warned about would-be assassin Thomas Crooks as he prepared to shoot the president at Saturday’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
And as the outrage over the attempt on Mr Trump’s life grows, Cheatle was dramatically shielded by her own officers after furious US senators hounded her in a corridor, demanding she explain how a gunman was able to get a clear shot at Mr Trump.
Cheatle was in the Milwaukee convention hall to oversee security arrangements on Wednesday evening – just hours after making a ‘cover-your-a** call’ to senators about the shooting in Pennsylvania on Saturday night.
Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee led the chase, complaining that they had not had a chance to put their questions to Cheatle during the call.
A frustrated Barrasso then issued an ultimatum to the security chief.
‘You put him within less than an inch of his life,’ Barrasso yelled at Cheatle. ‘So resignation or full explanation.’
Instead of placing her snipers on the roof of the American Glass Research Building in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Crooks fired from, she made the decision to secure the building from the inside.
‘That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point,’ the Secret Service chief claimed.
‘And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.
‘And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside,’ she added.
Thanks to Cheatle’s decision, Crooks managed to evade cops and Secret Service three times, even though he had been deemed ‘suspicious’ and could have been on the roof for up to 30 minutes before he pulled the trigger.
Witnesses also begged law enforcement to act when they saw him clamber onto the roof with his AR-style rifle, but the lapse in security meant he was able to carry out his bid to take the 45th president’s life.
Four sources close to President Biden’s family, including people who interacted with Cheatle during the Obama-Biden administration, told the New York Post she was well liked by the future first lady and her most senior aides, including top adviser Anthony Bernal.