Failed Trump Assassination Attempt

[Possibility of Being]

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 got into the Trump rally shooter’s phone in just 40 minutes

The shooter reportedly had a newer Samsung phone.

www.theverge.com

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.

The FBI said it found the Trump rally shooter’s Steam account, then took it back

Officials have yet to determine a motive for the shooting.

www.theverge.com

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.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

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.

 

[Benjamin]

Not men in black, but a man in grey.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1815048772990202348

I can't speak to the report itself, but isn't the photo altered? It looks like the grey suit dude has been shopped onto the actual photo. See a version of the photo in this post.

 

[Aeneas]

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.

 

[Joe]

I can't speak to the report itself, but isn't the photo altered? It looks like the grey suit dude has been shopped onto the actual photo. See a version of the photo in this post.

Yeah, he is shopped in. But it's the report that is of interest.

 

[Joe]

I and many others have to deal with illegal immigrants (yes, I'm going to call them that!)

How COULD you!

 

[Joe]

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.

 

[Niall]

Senator Ron Johnson to Maria Bartiomo on Fox News:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1815055060906266868

• 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!!!!

 

[mugatea]

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.

Maybe it was meant to be Kamala vs Haley final?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1815135844086448133

 

[Ellipse]

It was a chart about illegal immigration statistics & President Trump went off script/tele-prompter (as he often does) and asked for the chart to be put up. This was an intuitive act.

Thanks, so my theory of someone grabbing his attention with the chart was false.

I found back his declaration:

"I was discussing the great job my administration did on immigration at the southern border," Trump said. "Behind me, and to the right, was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership. The numbers were so amazing. In order to see the chart, I started to like this turn to my right. And was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I'm very lucky I didn't do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard, on my right ear. I said to myself wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.

"The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved in my head at that very last instance, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark," Trump continued.

Later in his speech, Trump brought the chart itself on the screen behind him as he talked about immigration.

"Last time I put up that chart, I never really got to look at it," Trump said of the chart, to laughter.

"I never got to see it that day. But I'm seeing it now and I was very proud," he added. "If you look at the arrow at the bottom, that's the lowest level one of the bottom heavy red arrow. That's the lowest level of illegal immigrants ever to come into our country. You can see on the chart that saved my life. That was the chart that saved my life."

He continued: "Without that chart, I would not be here today"

I saw a post somewhere where Trump said heard the voice of a deceased friend which caused him to turn his head towards the right so it was definitely divine intervention

here was a graph on a teleprompter, he was talking about it and said "take a look," and he turned to look at it.

There's an allegation he said he heard a voice but some research have to be done to check if it's a real Tweet.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

There's an allegation he said he heard a voice but some research have to be done to check if it's a real Tweet.

View attachment 98607

It's a real tweet, but it's just a joke, as if Abe was watching over him.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Senator Ron Johnson to Maria Bartiomo on Fox News:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1815055060906266868

This is great! It sounds like he's probably referring to Chris Martenson's video. If so, I love it. When was the last time internet theories inspired and informed official investigations? You can never trust the feds to be transparent, even when they have nothing to hide, so I hope the internet theorists can continue to influence Congress to push for some actual answers. Probably won't get them, but it can't hurt.

 

[Metrist]

"Crooked Joe"

I watched the rally, and it was only a few minutes into the speech, when Trump referred to Biden as "Crooked Joe". Turns out, that there are Crooked Joe t-shirts and Trump often refers to Biden as Crooked Joe.

So the would-be assassin's name is Crooks.

I'm sure he was teased for his last name to some degree. Could Trumps usage of that phrase trigger the sniper to shoot in haste? I mean, the idea of assassination is to take out a single target... So one shot is all it takes and is needed, but he shoots in quick succession - like he was too eager to kill him. It was personal. But this is the way all the radicals are behaving these days - way too personal. "Crooked?! CROOKED!!! I'll show you Crooked!"

So, not only by turning his head at the right time did Trump avert his death, maybe the immaturity of the shooter sent him into a emotional state and insecurity that made him have a hissy-fit while aiming his rifle.

 

[RedFox]

We'd need a 'playable' 3D model to check for sure

Very useful photo's. I'm still playing with heights, or calculating heights.
Something occurred to me with the footage/images we have so far - and I put together a quick test based on where the 2nd shot impacts the guy.
Its a very pixelated image (given the distance) but for a quick test it was worth it. I drew a line from Trumps head to the point of impact (on the long/wide shot - you will have to zoom in to see it).
Ok - it's not forensic accurate, but it does rise (by a few pixels).
If I'm lenient with the pixels and reverse calculate the angles it appears it could line up with a raised (about 185cm off the ground) sniper rifle in the building below Crooks. I didn't add in bullet drop off either - which may explain why the angle is so flat.
Not accurate, but I did want to see which way the line went. Eyeing it, it does also appear to clear the bleachers on the left easily too.


It is really going to be difficult to build a 3D model from all this, and will have to take into account topology among other things (as the ground between the buildings and the stage doesn't seem flat).
It may well be beyond my skill set and the tools I have available.

 

[forest_light]

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.

I don't know, I think they could throw anyone in that ring and Kamala would not stand a chance. Most people can see she doesn't have two neurons to rub together, let alone to get them firing. She has got to be one of the dumbest dumbasses that ever dumbassed.

I don't feel like it will be Kamala. I think even she knows that.

Thanks, so my theory of someone grabbing his attention with the chart was false.

Unless it was a blonde with big boobs He seems to have a penchant for them.

"Crooked?! CROOKED!!! I'll show you Crooked!"

Yeah I think someone was stoking that fire for quite a long time before this went down. I'm sure it was hard for him to hold his nerve, especially when he realised people had spotted him. If he was the one who actually struck the ear of Trump, I am sure he is quite pleased with his efforts.

Those bullets would have different 'markings' on them right? That's how they can tell they came from different weapons (I think). But of course the forensics will not support that, I am sure all the shots will 'magically' be accounted for as coming from the gun of one 'monstrous lunatic' only. Eyeroll.