(5MinNewsBreak.com) – In a bold declaration, Donald Trump has hinted that Iran might be linked to two attempts on his life earlier this year, but emphasized the need for the FBI to access the assassins’ phones to confirm these suspicions.
“There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran, but I don’t really know,” Trump told supporters in Mint Hill, NC, cited by The New York Post.
The 45th president was briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Tuesday about “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States,” according to his campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
Cheung did not detail the specific information disclosed to Trump, but the former president noted that “moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out.”
In North Carolina, Trump also disclosed that the FBI has been unable to access “three potentially foreign-based apps” used by Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who wounded him at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13.
After the attack, the FBI found two of Crooks’ phones with encrypted messaging accounts from Belgium, New Zealand, and Germany.
Congressman Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), part of a congressional task force, highlighted the unusual need for such encrypted platforms by a young health care aide, suggesting difficulty for U.S. law enforcement to penetrate these foreign platforms.
Law enforcement sources informed CBS News in July that they were struggling to crack the encryption on Crooks’ apps. The extent of the briefing Trump received from ODNI on this matter remains unclear.
Trump further claimed that the FBI had not accessed all the phones found in Ryan Wesley Routh’s car after he was caught with an SKS rifle at Trump’s Florida golf course.
“In the second case, the assassin had six cell phones in his car, yet the FBI has likewise been unable to penetrate their guard. Shouldn’t be tough to do,” Trump stated, pressing the importance of discovering whom Routh had been contacting.
Investigations revealed that two of the six phones showed Routh near Trump International Golf Club multiple times before the September 15 assassination attempt.
An anonymous tip led to a box Routh had given containing a letter, ammunition, a metal pipe, and additional phones, as stated by the Department of Justice.
Trump urged that Apple should assist in unlocking the encrypted apps and the phones, underlining the significant stakes involved.
Copyright 2024, 5MinNewsBreak.com