The father of Donald Trump’s would-be assassin appears to be feeling the heat.
Matthew Crooks, the 52-year-old dad of Thomas Matthew Crooks, recently hired a pair of powerhouse attorneys to represent him and his wife as the FBI probes his household, the Daily Mail reported Monday.
John Quinn and Matthew Logue, who practice law out of nearby Pittsburgh, were reportedly hired to represent Matthew Crooks and his 53-year-old wife, Mary. Their area of practice includes personal injury, wrongful death, and legal malpractice, according to their website.
An anonymous loved one of the elder Crooks told the Mail the “FBI still very much has questions about how much” he knew about his son’s plans to assassinate a former U.S. president.
Federal investigators have given no indication the father knew of his son’s murderous intentions. There’s still been plenty of public scrutiny for the elder Crooks, however, because it was his old AR-15 style rifle that was used to open fire at Trump on July 13.
Those close to the Crooks household told the Mail that guns were prevalent in the family, with Matthew Crooks often selling firearms to loved ones and frequenting the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club to use its firing range. That source added that Mary and Matthew Crooks, both social workers, did not appear at family holidays.
Authorities said previously that the younger Crooks, 20, also frequented the shooting range. There, he reportedly practiced hitting targets as far as 561 feet away, which is more than 100 feet farther than he was from Trump when he rattled off three shots in the ex-president’s direction.
A definitive motive behind Crooks’ attack has not been released by the FBI, but Google searches suggested he was intrigued by previous killers like Lee Harvey Oswald and the Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley. Other searches suggested he may have suffered from major depressive disorder.
Thomas Crooks worked at a nursing home and lived with his parents in western Pennsylvania, about 40 miles away from where the deadly rally was held in Butler. He didn’t go to a four-year college, despite investigators revealing he scored high enough on the SAT to be accepted into Ivy League schools.
The FBI descended on the Crooks’ family home shortly after the attack, where agents said they recovered 14 firearms, explosives, and a phone, laptop, and hard drive that belonged to the gunman.
Thomas Crooks’ parents have been largely mum since the shooting but were spotted outside a grocery store and confronted by Fox News reporters last month.
“Matthew, why would your son want to kill the president?” a reporter said during the interaction, which was recorded.
The elder Crooks responded, “No comment.” Simultaneously, a woman wearing a medical mask next to him yelled, “Back off!” and “no comment.”
After the reporters continued pressing, Matthew Crooks said his family would “release a statement when our legal counsel advises us to do so.” No statement had been released by the family as of Monday morning.
“We just want to try to take care of ourselves right now,” Matthew Crooks said. “So please, just give us our space.”
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