German authorities warn of incendiary devices in packages, dpa reports

German authorities are warning of unconventional incendiary devices sent by unknown persons in packages, German news agency dpa reported on Friday, citing a message sent to airlines and logistics companies.

The parcels were sent from European locations to other locations on the continent and caught fire on the way, the report said.

The security notice was sent issued by the domestic intelligence service BfV and federal crime agency BKA, it said.

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FBI Releases Details of Trump Shooter’s Internet Search History, Photos of Gun, Backpack, Explosives

The FBI has provided new insights into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, shedding light on the actions and planning of the would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks.

USA Today reported that the FBI revealed these details in a recent conference call briefing, marking a significant development in the ongoing investigation.

Special Agent Kevin Rojek, in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, explained that an analysis of Crooks’ online search history showed “detailed attack planning” before the Butler, Pennsylvania rally where Trump was shot. 

Despite this insight into Crooks’ activities, Rojek stated that a clear motive remains elusive. 

“The FBI’s analysis into Crooks’ activities provided valuable insight into his mindset, but not a definitive motive,” Rojek noted.

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Suspect was across the street from Capitol Police squad car while walking to Jan. 5 bomb drop, video shows

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story said it appeared the bombing suspect interacted with police. After publication, a congressional investigator with access to a camera angle that has not been made public reached out and told Blaze News a person similarly attired to the bomber who comes out of the alley and crosses the street toward the two Capitol Police vehicles is not the same person as the hoodie-clad pipe-bomb suspect seen walking down the alley just minutes earlier.

A Capitol Police squad car with its emergency lights on was parked directly across the street at the time a hoodie-clad suspect allegedly carrying a pipe bomb walked down the alley toward the rear of the Republican National Committee building, Blaze News has learned.

Video never before disclosed or made public shows the pipe-bomb suspect bathed in the red and blue squad-car lights on Jan. 5, 2021, just as he or she walked to place the explosive device. The footage was discovered by social media user “Armitas” (@accabbat on X),who provided it exclusively to Blaze News.

An individual with similar dress to the suspected pipe bomber who emerged from the same alley minutes later was unrelated to the bombing case, according to congressional investigators who have access to a camera angle that has not been made public.

A previous version of this story said an individual dressed like the bomb suspect crossed the street and interacted with Capitol Police parked along C Street. Congressional investigators said camera footage they have seen shows that person did not speak to officers and his or her presence was unrelated to the bomb case. Blaze News has requested access to footage from the camera, located in front of the Library of Congress near the alley entrance.

Discovery of the new video raises questions about why the footage has not been disclosed to the public in the nearly 44 months since Jan. 6, and why yet more cameras with clues to the pipe bomb mystery are being withheld by federal authorities.

The video from Armitas and subsequent investigation by Blaze News showed the alleged bomber emerged onto First Street Southeast from an alley between the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee at 8:14 p.m. on Jan. 5.The video from Armitas and subsequent investigation by Blaze News showed the alleged bomber emerged onto First Street Southeast from an alley between the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee at 8:14 p.m. Jan. 5.

The suspect walked north past the Capitol Hill Club. As the individual passed under the restaurant’s green awning at 8:14:30 p.m., a Capitol Police SUV turned the corner onto First Street. The alleged bomber waved at the squad car and then pointed — it appeared — at the driver as the vehicle passed by.

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Trump shooter Thomas Crooks had encrypted messaging accounts in Belgium, Germany, New Zealand

Trump rally gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks used encrypted messaging accounts on various platforms located in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany, according to a member of a congressional task force investigating his assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), one of 13 lawmakers tapped to serve on the House bipartisan task force, told reporters at a Wednesday press conference at the Trump Hotel Chicago that the “overseas accounts” piqued his suspicion immediately regarding the shooter’s motives.”

“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aid need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad – where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into?” asked Waltz.

“That’s a question I’ve had since day one,” the Republican panel member said, before pivoting to bash the US Secret Service and FBI for declining to release the full findings of their investigation into the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally.

“They need to be releasing information as they come across it, because this wasn’t an isolated incident. The threats are continual,” Waltz claimed, citing the alleged “sophisticated plot” by an Pakistani national who paid off purported hitmen to assassinate Trump and other US officials.

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New Footage Shows Trump Shooter Casually Strolling Around PA Rally

New footage has emerged of failed Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks walking around merch stalls at the Butler rally before he attempted to kill the Republican nominee.

Crooks is seen walking by vendors dressed in the same grey t-shirt, shorts and sneakers he was later seen in while taking aim at Trump on the sloped rooftop.

The footage was posted to TikTok by a user called IronCladUSA, with the caption “Terrifying moment…looking back at my videos from the PA Butler Trump rally on 7/13/24. We were there just trying to sell our patriotic hats from my small business.”

“Captured a video of Thomas Matthew Crooks…just before the assassination attempt occurred,” the caption notes, adding “interesting he was wearing shorts instead of pants, which he later had on, and he has no bags with him at this moment.”

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A Month Later, Questions Linger About Trump’s Attempted Assassination

It’s the one-month anniversary of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, and it’s still not clear what happened at that deadly July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Most of the primary evidence about the event—body camera footage, audio recordings, text messages and operations plans—has come from local police and event attendees. On the federal level, whistleblower disclosures have contradicted congressional testimony from top FBI and Secret Service officials. Federal and local authorities have also contradicted each other.

Still, the available evidence can provide a guide for investigators to ask the right questions.

What We Think We Know: Not Much

Based on text messages from the Butler and Beaver County Emergency Services Units, it looks like local law enforcement first spotted Trump shooter Thomas Crooks by 4:26 p.m.

More than 40 minutes later at 5:38 p.m., local counter snipers saw Crooks again, this time right beneath their second-story perch on the AGR building. It was at this point when they photographed Crooks and let the Secret Service know about him.

Officers then allegedly “lost track” of Crooks for about 20 minutes, according to reports on their radio communications. At 6:02 p.m., Beaver County sniper Greg Nicol again spotted Crooks on the side of the building facing away from the Trump rally.

How Nicol and the other local cops lost Crooks after that isn’t quite clear. But according to their radio comms, Nicol told his fellow officers that Crooks was headed to a Sheetz gas station about a quarter-mile outside the rally site.

Nicol, who shot himself in a “freak accident” last December, was wrong. Instead of going all the way around the AGR building to the Sheetz gas station, he instead made his way to an HVAC unit next to the AGR building—using that equipment to gain access to the roof of the building.

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Plot Thickens? British Tech Titan’s Co-Defendant Killed In Car Crash, Days Before Yacht ‘Hit By Tornado’

An unexpected violent storm, which some EU media outlets described as a ‘tornado,’ sank the British-flagged superyacht “Bayesian” early Monday morning off the coast of Sicily. Local authorities confirmed one dead, and six people are missing, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer. Bayesian was carrying 22 people during what appears to be a ‘weather-related’ incident.

Let’s take a step back because the plot thickens here. Just days before the Bayesian sank to the ocean floor, off the coast of Porticello – a small fishing village nestled between Palermo and Cefalu on Sicily’s western shore – Lynch’s co-defendant in the US Autonomy-Hewlett-Packard fraud trial was struck and killed by a car while out for a run near his home in England on Saturday. 

Here’s more from The Independent:

Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice president of finance, who worked alongside chief executive Mr Lynch, was killed after being hit by a vehicle while out running on Saturday, his lawyer, Gary Lincenberg said.

In a statement, Mr Lincenberg said: “Our dear client and friend Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running.

“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity. We deeply miss him. Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family.”

Chamberlain faced similar fraud and conspiracy charges as his former boss, Lynch, for allegedly conspiring to inflate their company Autonomy before it was sold to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. 

On June 6, a federal court jury in San Francisco found Lynch and Chamberlain not guilty following an 11-week criminal trial. 

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More Lies and Confusion Concerning Autopsy Thomas Crooks the Would-be Assassin of Former President Trump

The federal investigation into the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump can be described as one screw up after another. Just last week, Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) submitted a Preliminary Investigative Report to the House Bipartisan Task Force reviewing the attempted assassination and shocked the nation by explaining that the body (of the alleged shooter) was gone.

The Butler County Coroner is not a medical examiner and cannot conduct an autopsy. Therefore, the alleged shooter’s body was shipped to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner to perform the autopsy. We know with from a discussion that AbleChild had with the Allegany County Medical Examiner’s office. They confirmed that that body was there and that they performed the autopsy.

The fact that the body of the alleged shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was apparently released from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner to the family for cremation just ten days after the shooting is bizarre on its face. In fact, the Butler County Coroner told Congressman Higgins “he would have never released Crooks’ body to the family for cremation or burial without the specific permission from the FBI.” The Congressman suggested a cover up when he wrote “this action by the FBI can only be described by any reasonable man as an obstruction to any following investigative effort.”

The FBI, right on cue, had the expected naïve and defensive reply when a spokesman for the FBI reported, “any suggestion the FBI is interfering with congressional efforts to look into the attempted assassination which took place in Butler, PA, is inaccurate and unfounded.” The spokesman continued saying the FBI “followed normal procedures in the handling of the crime scene and evidence…and the shooter’s body was released to his family after coordination with the coroner’s office and our state and local law enforcement partners, which is also in keeping with normal procedures.”

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Media Withholds Assassin Angles: Like Reagan-Hinckley-Bush Connection

The strange shooting of Donald Trump remains a mystery, but presidential assassins, and would-be assassins in general, have as a result gotten renewed attention from the media. 

Unfortunately, this new coverage suffers from the same egregious flaws as earlier media stories about these history-shaking events. So, even before I began reading a recent New York Times Magazine article about John Hinckley Jr., then who almost assassinated Ronald Reagan, I felt a sense of dread. 

I knew before I read it almost exactly what it would say — that it would be a platform for platitudes and falsehoods perpetuated for more than half a century, and that the single most interesting thing about Hinckley and his shooting of Reagan would never be mentioned. But I plunged in.

The mere fact that major media like The New York Times and their contributors instinctively play this game of Hide the Object worries me deeply, largely because much of what they report is true — creating the false impression that all of what they report is true and complete. 

From what they write, you would never guess that there might conceivably be more to acts of domestic political violence than a random sad delusional character — like Hinckley — acting out some self-generated sick fantasy. 

For example: You would never have guessed that the psychiatric hospital where Hinckley was placed after the shooting had been historically involved in the CIA’s MK-ULTRA program with its mind control experiments focused on “programming” killers. And that while George Bush Sr. was director of the CIA — he presided over suppressing the truth about this program.  

Nor would you have guessed that Bush was also a personal friend of the Hinckleys (like Bush, Hinckley Sr. was a Texas oil executive), and would surely have known about the son’s problems — and that he was in that particular hospital. Had Hinckley succeeded in killing Reagan, Bush would not have waited eight long years in the shadows before becoming president.   (The Bush and Hinckley families were so close that Hinckley Jr.’s brother Scott and his date were to dine with Neil Bush the night after the shooting, but the dinner was canceled after the shooting.)

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The Weird, Creepy, Surreal—and Dangerous—2024 Campaign

The already-long 2024 presidential campaign has become the strangest in modern history.

Here are ten unanswered questions that illustrate how and why we’ve entered this bizarro world:

1. How can Kamala Harris merely promise us fixes to come in 2025 for inflation and an open border when she is still vice president for another six months? Why can’t she enact her proposed solutions to these problems (which she helped create) right now?

2. Would the media prefer to help her win but lose further credibility themselves by failing to ask why she has disowned her last three decades of leftist agendas, or to reclaim some of their reputations and thereby risk her losing?

3. Does the left appreciate the new campaign and election protocols it has now established?

That is to say:

Cancel by fiat their virtual nominee four months before the election when he sinks in the polls?

Nullify the outcome of a year of primaries and the will of 14 million voters?

Threaten a sitting president with removal by the 25th Amendment process unless he steps aside as his party nominee?

Anoint a replacement nominee before the convention and without a single primary—and then prevent any rival candidates from challenging her?

4. After the precedents of 2020 and 2024, is the future orthodox protocol for any Democratic nominee now to avoid all interviews and ex tempore speaking, and stick to teleprompted speeches and scripted responses only?

Is the fear that a transparent progressive messenger with an overt and honest left-wing message will double down on it and thus guarantee defeat?

5. For the next 80 days, has the chameleon-like Kamala Harris now become a temporary MAGA candidate, as she expropriates Trump’s positions from border security to no taxes on tips? Does the media care to ask the new 80-day MAGA Harris why she has renounced many of her once emphatic beliefs?

6. If Democratic presidential reelection candidate Joe Biden was pronounced fit as a fiddle before June 27, but after July 21 was abruptly forced off the ticket as too debilitated to continue as his party’s nominee, what exactly is his status now?

(Half-cognizant and thus able enough to continue his not-so-important task as America’s president, but also half-enfeebled and thus utterly unable to continue as the far more important Democratic nominee, it appears.)

7. Does the new anti-Semitic Democratic Party prefer to risk losing with the radical nonentity WASP Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate rather than likely win with a popular, successful, and moderate Jewish Josh Shapiro?

8. If one vice presidential candidate went to a war zone to serve with his deployed unit, while his counterpart preferred to retire from the military to avoid doing the same and lies about his abdication, how can the media credibly assert that the former’s tour was militarily suspect and yet pronounce the latter’s absence as heroic?

9. If the current president canceled his reelection bid because he was too debilitated and unpopular, and is now rarely seen or heard, and if the vice president is out of Washington running a campaign in his place, but avoiding all press conferences, interviews, and unscripted addresses, who exactly, if anyone, is running the United States for the next six months of the lame duck Biden-Harris administration?

10. If Donald Trump all summer has been compared by his enemies to Hitler and his murderous Third Reich, and if a 20-year-old would-be assassin and murderer with ease took up a sniper’s position to kill Trump—without a notified Secret Service or other law enforcement attempting to abort the shooter’s attempted assassination—what signal does that send to other would-be assassins for the next 80 days of the 2024 campaign?

Is the message that if a 20-year-old amateur sniper can brazenly and visibly for nearly an hour breach all Secret Service security perimeters to shoot eight times at the president, hit him in the ear, kill one innocent bystander, and wound two others, then almost any future, more-experienced serious shooter could match or exceed the ability of that disturbed amateur to get close enough to Trump to fire more than eight shots at his head?

And that shooting Donald Trump in many leftist quarters would subsequently earn the unhinged killer eternal fame, applause, and immortality?

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