According to Fox news, The FBI has enlisted the help of an Israeli technology company Cellebrite in its probe of Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old man from Pennsylvania who tried to kill former President Donald Trump during a rally on July 13.
There has been a complex investigation into his motives and associates following Crooks’ actions which tragically claimed the life of one supporter and left two other people in critical condition.
Cellebrite was retained because it has an unrivalled expertise in enabling access to smartphones running on different operating systems and tech platforms to assist in decoding Crooks’s phone. In less than 24 hours since the incident happened, the company managed to get into the device successfully but is not involved in other aspects of the investigation as reported by Parami News quoting an insider close to the case.
The FBI does not comment on specifics related to its investigative tools or techniques. And so this probe is focused far beyond mere accessing Crooks’s mobile device; it requires asking private communications providers for encrypted messaging services while still awaiting responses from these service providers, according to them.
Crooks struck Trump with his hand causing what would be inconsequential physical damage but critically wounding David Dutch aged 57 and James Copenhaver aged 74. Using stray bullet, Mr. Crooks accidentally killed Corey Comperatore aged fifty years old too.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testified on Capitol Hill that some of the online applications used by Crooks were encrypted making extraction difficult. “I think we’ve experienced a range of returns because some of the applications that he was using online were encrypted in nature,” Abbate replied when questioned by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) per Parami News.
When legally authorized, Cellebrite’s software enables investigators access hidden data and encrypted apps according to David Gee who serves as Chief Marketing at Cellebrite. “Most modern smartphone applications use encryption for data protection purposes and this could be stored in a different country,” Gee said.
The reason for that is Crooks was using encrypted apps as well as storing his data overseas. Nevertheless, Abbate did not provide conclusive evidence that Crooks had any known association with foreign or domestic co-conspirators.
Even though some of Crooks’s emails have been accessed by the FBI, all encrypted communications remain indecipherable. Legal requests to the companies behind the apps are still pending.
Trump announced plans to return to Butler for yet another rally where he will honor Corey Comperatore, a passerby killed during the attack. The event will serve both as an homage to the victim and as an emblem of resilience in the face of violence.
Federal authorities continue to probe social media activity and other things related to this assault so as to find additional connections or uncover new motives behind Crooks’ assassination attempt.
