F.B.I. officials told members of Congress on Wednesday that the gunman who tried to kill former President Donald J. Trump used his cellphone and other devices to search images of Mr. Trump and President Biden, along with an array of public figures.
The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., also looked up dates of Mr. Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention, according to people on two conference calls held to answer lawmakers’ questions.
And, at least once, his browsing history signaled concerns about his own mental state. He also seems to have previewed his attack on Steam, a gaming platform he frequented, telling fellow gamers he planned to make his “premiere” on July 13, the day of the shooting.
The disclosures, made during private briefings to lawmakers by the F.B.I. and the head of the embattled Secret Service, offered the most complete portrait so far of a would-be assassin with no criminal history, or even clearly discernible political beliefs, who came close to killing Mr. Trump. Still, no clear motive for the attack has emerged.
The official assessment aligned with recollections of people who knew him. Several former classmates have said they never heard the gunman express any particular political ideology. But Vincent Taormina, a former classmate who said he attended middle school and high school with the gunman, said in an interview that Mr. Crooks showed a general disdain for politicians in both parties.
He recalled one instance when the two were in seventh grade. During a classroom political debate, Mr. Taormina voiced his support for Mr. Trump. Mr. Crooks seemed incredulous.
“He says, ‘Aren’t you Hispanic? And you like Trump?’” Mr. Taormina said. “He said, ‘That’s a little stupid.’”
Mr. Taormina brushed off the encounter, and had few other interactions with Mr. Crooks. But he disputed other classmates’ accounts that the gunman had been bullied or had been a loner, saying that he was intelligent and had his own small group of friends.
“I did not know him personally or as a friend, but he was not bullied, he was not a recluse,” Mr. Taormina said.
The F.B.I. has been scouring Mr. Crooks’s possessions since the shooting on Saturday — including two phones and at least one laptop — for clues about his motive. So far, they have found no indication that Mr. Crooks, who was a registered Republican, had strong partisan political views one way or another, bureau officials told lawmakers.
Nor have they uncovered any evidence of co-conspirators or connections to foreign actors, two top bureau officials said during the tense calls in which members of the House and Senate demanded answers about a nearly catastrophic failure to safeguard Mr. Trump.
The officials told lawmakers that there was some indication that the gunman, who led a quiet life and worked at a nursing home near his house, might have been struggling with depression.
Officials singled out some of the searches on one of his cellphones, saying that he had looked up “major depressive disorder,” according to a person on the calls and another briefed on its contents.
Mr. Crooks seems to have been on good terms with his parents, who are both counselors, but they were not closely involved in the day-to-day details of his life, officials said.
Over the last several months, the gunman received multiple packages, including several that were marked “hazardous material,” according to a federal law enforcement memo obtained by The New York Times. Federal officials reviewed his shipping history after they discovered three explosive devices connected to him, the memo said. One device was found in his home, and two others were found in his car parked near the rally.
Investigators discovered two improvised explosive devices in the would-be assassin’s car that used a radio-controlled initiation system intended for commercial fireworks demonstrations.
While the briefing on Wednesday filled in some blanks, it left many questions unanswered. Federal law enforcement officials are puzzled and exasperated by the lack of evidence on the gunman’s two phones, one of which was found by his body on the roof of a warehouse outside the security perimeter of the rally, the other discovered during a search of his house.
F.B.I. officials, speaking on the calls, suggested that his search history indicated he was broadly interested in powerful and famous people, without any obvious ideological or partisan pattern.
Among the other prominent figures the gunman searched for using one of his phones, besides Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden: the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray; Attorney General Merrick B. Garland; and a member of the British royal family, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter publicly.
Mr. Wray, who was also on the calls, went out of his way to caution that the investigation was still in its early stages.
But the absence of “any political or ideological information” at the house Mr. Crooks shared with his mother and father was “notable” because most people who carry out acts of political violence tend to leave a discernible trail of political views, a top bureau official told lawmakers.
Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, admitted that her agency made serious “mistakes” during one of the calls, and provided new information about Mr. Crooks’s movements during the shooting. She is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
During the briefing with senators, officials ran through a timeline of events, noting that law enforcement officers had identified the gunman as suspicious about an hour before the shooting but then lost track of him, according to two people familiar with the contents of the briefing.
About 20 minutes before the shooting, a sniper spotted him again, the people said.
Some senators left their call angry with the Secret Service after learning that officers did not intervene before he opened fire.
“He had a rangefinder and a backpack. The Secret Service lost sight of him. No one has taken responsibility,” Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, said in a statement, adding, “The head of the Secret Service needs to go.”
Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, called on federal law enforcement agencies to publicly release the same details shared with lawmakers.
“The Biden administration has got to start being open with Americans about what happened, who is being held accountable and how we make sure it never happens again,” he said.
The post Gunman’s Phone Had Details About Both Trump and Biden, F.B.I. Officials Say appeared first on New York Times.
