FBI discovered DHS document with descriptions of improvised explosive devices during investigation into Trump’s alleged assassin

CNN
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Among the documents that Donald Trump’s would-be assassin studied while making plans to attack the former president was a public Department of Homeland Security document that described different types of improvised explosive devices and the amount of explosive needed to cause casualties over a certain distance, a senior law enforcement official told CNN.

The FBI discovered stored images of the fact sheet titled “IED Attack: Improvised Explosive Devices” during initial searches of Thomas Matthew Crooks’ electronic devices. While the National Academies and DHS document also explains what to do to protect yourself and others during an IED attack, it focuses on the key characteristics and conditions for the use of destructive explosive devices. The document, which is more than a decade old, remains available online.

The FBI declined to respond to CNN’s questions about what exactly was found on the shooter’s electronic devices, but the agency said any questions about the DHS document should be directed to DHS.

A DHS official told CNN that the department “provides information to the American public on how to protect themselves from a range of potential homeland security threats.” The department, the official added, “cannot comment on the FBI’s investigation” or “speculate on any documents that may have been found on its devices.”

The document includes diagrams detailing specific IED types, their main components, and the amounts of explosive required for specific blast radii. It also notes the practice of planting secondary explosive devices to attack first responders and provides examples of “terrorist IED attacks.”

A footnote at the end of the document refers the reader to other fact sheets in a series published by DHS and the National Academies that describe essential tactics for other types of attacks, including chemical, radiological, or biological.

Details of the IED document come after the FBI on Wednesday released photos of the gun Crooks used to shoot Trump during the July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as well as the backpack and two remote-controlled IEDs found in the trunk of his car parked near the rally. FBI officials provided new information about the gunman’s internet searches in the days before the assassination and explained how investigators are using that search to reconstruct his state of mind that day.

“We identified through our analysis of all of his — particularly his online searches — a sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on specific events, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,” said Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. “And then when that event was announced, the Trump rally, in early July, he became hyper-focused on that specific event and viewed it as a target of opportunity.”

Although Rojek said the shooter viewed the Trump rally as a “target of opportunity,” officials have not yet identified a motive and said Crooks did not express “any definitive ideology.”

Eventually, the crooks fired eight shots at Trump from the roof of one of the complex’s buildings, killing one bystander and wounding two others before a Secret Service sniper shot him dead.

CNN’s Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.