OPINION:
Questions linger about the attempted assassination of then-candidate Donald Trump (“One year after Trump assassination attempt, changes at Secret Service but questions remain,” Web, July 13).
But the lingering questions are not about the upbringing of shooter Michael Thomas Crooks, whose background up to and through his graduation from college and start on a career in engineering are well-known and perfectly ordinary. The only exception is, perhaps, that his mother is visually impaired. Otherwise, Crooks’ upbringing paralleled my own, as I also grew up in a family with a handicapped member and the close social life of such a family is understandable and normal.
What is not normal is the sudden change in Crooks’ character and social behavior. There has been no evidence advanced that he suddenly became a drug addict with unpredictable behavior. The most plausible explanation is that he became part of a larger scheme conceived by those in the deep state determined to prevent President Trump from having a second term. Was he recruited by the CIA and later set up as a patsy?
I needn’t go into a rehashing of Crook’s quite open but peculiar and suspicious actions, such as brazenly inspecting the entire premises near where Mr. Trump was to speak, but they all fit well into his being carefully directed by someone the intelligence community.
Of course, CIA immediately denied that Crooks had any connections to the agency. But it is the CIA, not the FBI, that should be investigated. These are the areas where questions linger. It was said that his parents had been cooperating with the investigators. Well, what did the parents have to offer? Had they been aware of what their son was doing? Why hasn’t any of their testimony been revealed?
It has been said that nothing in politics happens by accident. It was no accident that this normal-seeming, even intelligent individual suddenly turned his back on a reasonably bright future. A thorough and in-depth investigation of possible CIA connections to this matter should be made.
JOHN D.S. MUHLENBERG
Vienna, Virginia
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