Failed Trump Assassination Attempt

Searching this thread shows it wasn't posted yet. Hope that's the case. The original Bloomberg (18/07) and WP (16/07) articles are behind a paywall (Bloomberg archived here) but The Verge recap was posted shortly after.

Published last Friday, July 19, 2024

The FBI used an unreleased tool from the Israeli mobile forensics company Cellebrite to unlock the Trump rally shooter’s phone — and opened it in less than an hour, according to reports from Bloomberg and The Washington Post.

Investigators at the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office first tried to open Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone with a Cellebrite tool but weren’t able to break into it. The phone was sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, on Sunday, where agents called Cellebrite’s federal team, people familiar with the investigation told Bloomberg. Cellebrite sent the FBI an unreleased tool that’s still in development, which was able to unlock Crooks’ phone in 40 minutes.

The Verge has reached out to Cellebrite for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

The speed with which the FBI was able to unlock Crooks’ phone is illustrative of the advancements in mobile device forensic tools (MDTFs) in recent years — but the fact that investigators couldn’t crack the phone using tools currently on the market shows how developments in operating systems can quickly render these tools obsolete.

Crooks had a newer Samsung phone that runs on an Android operating system. Internal Cellebrite documents obtained by 404 Media show that the Cellebrite tools currently on the market have failed to unlock many phones running iOS 17.4 or newer, as well as Google Pixel 6, 7, and 8 phones that have been turned off.

In a briefing with members of Congress on Wednesday, the FBI said Crooks had searched for the dates of former President Donald Trump’s public appearances, as well as the dates of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, according to various media reports. Crooks also reportedly looked up prominent figures, including FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

According to media sources, FBI officials also said they found a Steam profile they believed belonged to Crooks and that Crooks posted an ominous warning message ahead of the shooting that read, “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds.” CNN later reported that investigators now believe the account is fake.


There is one problem though. As with Pegasus, it's almost certain that Cellebrite's UFED tools can not only extract data from password protected devices but they can also change (and plant?) the data.

This was reported by The Telegraph back in 2021:

Moxie Marlinspike, the chief executive of encrypted messaging app Signal, published a blog in which he outlined a vulnerability that could change messages as Cellebrite extracted them, potentially ruining critical evidence.

Some technicalities from Wiki:

In 2021, Moxie Marlinspike, creator of the encrypted messaging app Signal, pointed to a number of vulnerabilities in Cellebrite's UFED and Physical Analyzer software that allowed for arbitrary code execution on Windows computers running the software. One exploit he detailed involved the UFED scanning a specially formatted file which could then be used to execute arbitrary code on the computer running the UFED. Marlinspike wrote that the code could then "[modify] not just the Cellebrite report being created in that scan, but also "all previous and future generated Cellebrite reports" from all previously scanned devices and all future scanned devices in any arbitrary way"

MintPress commented:

Cellebrite’s customers include law enforcement agencies in Colombia, including the national police, law enforcement in Mexico, and Argentina’s border patrol. Law enforcement often relies on Cellebrite to extract mobile data and use it for evidence, raising legal and security concerns. Moxie Marlinspike, founder of encrypted messaging app, Signal, claimed Cellebrite’s software is unreliable and the data can be corrupted — potentially putting innocent people behind bars.

Cellebrite allegedly "fixed the vulnerability" but it's quite reasonable to assume that that feature was not accidental and may still be part of a "special offer" per friendly request. And given the changing reports on what was found on Crooks' Samsung, I wouldn't exclude the possibility that like with most "info" about the event, it's all "work in progress" with many mishaps on the way.
 
Only making a guess, that if shots came from inside and unless under suppression (then with an open window), depending on where one was, it might sound either like muffled sound or a boombox. Anyone inside (obviously) or near a door/window, would immediatly know. Think people close to the building would also readably hear/feel - sense it. Firing inside (go to any indoor range with long arms), air is compressed against the structure with no where to go, and it sure is not quite. So, yet again, from the outside it might be either muffled or fairly loud from location (noticeable difference from an ordinary outside shot).
So we have a bunch of videos with a stationary (or mostly stationary) camera at a distance, where the shots all sound basically the same (examples one, two).

Then we have the two videos from nearby the building where the camera moves and the bullet sounds change as the camera moves. In this one, the move occurs between the two groupings - the first are lower in pitch, no clear echo, and the next are higher and have echoes. In this one the move occurs during the second and third shots, then moves slightly downward for the next 5. Shot number 2 sounds the same as shots 4-8. Shot 3, when the camera is angled at its highest, is a bit tinnier and higher in pitch than the ones surrounding it, when the camera is angled slightly lower. Only the 1st, 4th and 8th bullets have an audible echo.

We have another video from near the stage where the sounds of the bullets also change. The reports get tinnier as he moves his camera down toward the ground after the first shot, and then slightly fuller again as he raises it during the last few shots. First echo is very clear, 2nd and 3rd audible but fainter as the camera is angled downward.
 
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One possibility would be an ideological switcheroo where they bring right-wing/conservative politics back to power, provided it's pro-Israel. (They pulled off these kinds of switcheroos many times in the past). Question is: did they intend to do that with or without Trump? Since the Cs talked about a possible "heart-attacking" of Trump, chances are they wanted to do it without Trump, probably because all the other Republicans are much easier controlled than him (he's a wildcard with too much power).

So maybe the "divine intervention" and rescuing of Trump needs to be seen in a larger context of what's to come: whatever it is, it somehow needs Trump surviving. This would fit with the "quorum" idea: it's neither a STS nor a STO decision, but rather some sort of understanding that this is what needs to be done.
Thank you for posting these excerpts and your thoughts on them. With this thing of the Quorum meeting, the need for balance which will mean first more control leading to more resistance, I wondered about the 'divine intervention'? It could sound as if killing Trump would not generate enough resistance needed for balance. If that is the case and I might well have misunderstood it, then that could mean that saving Trump will lead to greater control and then to greater resistance.

Joe wrote a week ago about how we dodged a bullet by not having Nikki Haley who would likely have been the Republican candidate if Trump had died. So is the scenario now that Trump will lead to more control and thus more resistance? I can not quite see that with Trump, but in case he dies, his choice of VP would become the President or in case it is before November the candidate and likely be president. Could it therefore be Vance's rule which would lead to more control and thus more resistance and ultimately some severe weather events?

The above is speculation in trying to understand how saving Trump from the attempt on his life could ultimately lead to more balance, through the painful way of control and resistance to such.

If the fall of Rome was a template then a few things are interesting. The attempt on Trump was the day after Ceasar's birthday. Ceasar chose Augustus as his heir and Augustus was a tyrant which hastened the collapse of Rome. Ceasar must have been pretty good at assessing people and having put good leaders around him or at least when he was on the battle field. As can be seen from the assassination of Ceasar, then on the political arena, he did not have many good people around him as most were still tied to the patrician camp and in it for their own gains. Anyway not so long after Augustus rule, Rome collapsed and major earth changes happened.

Trump chose Vance, who like Augustus, is a young guy, relatively, and in terms of politics, very young and inexperienced. In business (the equivalent of Ceasar's battlefield) there is no doubt that Trump has been good at picking people. In politics not so much as he has often picked RINOs and others whose allegiances have been to the deep state and power/wealth. Vance has voiced that he is keen on war with Iran and in defending Taiwan and that he is all in for Israel. Anyway, he is an unknown and much can change also for him so it is needless to speculate further. We can just observe and watch how things unfold and how Vance, if he -down the path - becomes the commander in chief, will fare. The future is open after all.

All the above was really just trying to understand what the C's meant by greater control in relation to the Trump event:
Q: (L) Does it mean that from our perspective they're going to effect, or make some nefarious plans in the direction of greater control of human beings?

A: Close.

Q: (L) Is it because there is too much resistance against the increasing control, or not enough?

A: Not enough for balance.

Q: (L) So, based on things you've said in the past, does that mean there needs to be more suffering so that more people wake up?

A: Close.
 
Or probably more likely, they pick a nobody who doesn’t stand much of a chance, and then something like Joe suggested:

It's gonna be Kamala. There is nowhere near enough time (3 weeks) for any other candidate to convince any Dems they should vote for them. Kamala has the exposure over the past 3.5 years to at least be recognizable, albeit not electable. So the delegates will get in line behind Camel lady.
 
Senator Ron Johnson to Maria Bartiomo on Fox News:

  • On July 13, Secret Service did not attend the 9am security meeting with Local Law Enforcement
  • Law Enforcement wasn’t even on the same security channel
  • The Sniper and Swat teams weren’t on the same channels as patrol officers, or Secret Service
  • At 10:30am in the morning, the local PD team was told to secure the perimeter of the AGR building. No one told them where to go, so they set up on the 2nd floor.
  • At 5:14pm ET, the local sniper team took photos of the shooter, Crooks, in the AGR building. Why wasn’t he intercepted? The photo(s) were taken at 5:14pm ET, and Trump was shot at 6:11pm ET
  • A preliminary report will be released to solicit more eyewitness testimony.
  • The sniper team was the first to go on the roof and began taken pictures of the dead body. Someone in a suit approached them and told them to send those photos to an ATF agent… They thought it was Secret Service. They tried to call the ATF agent, BUT NOW HE’S GONE DARK!!!!! They cannot find him. WTF!!!!
 
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