SWAT counter-sniper backs House GOP's 'evidence tampering' claims about Trump assassination attempt

A SWAT counter-sniper who was working the Butler, Pennsylvania rally when Donald Trump and three audience members were shot — one fatally — in July has backed up claims from GOP lawmakers that there was tampering with evidence in the aftermath of the shooting, where Thomas Matthew Crooks was killed amid his attempt on 45th president's life.  

Washington Regional SWAT counter-sniper Ben Shaffer commented it was “absolutely” of concern that the roof Crooks was killed on was quickly scrubbed after Crooks was killed and the body was disposed of before an autopsy report was released. Several House Republicans, including Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ), Eli Crane (AZ), Matt Gaetz (FL), Chip Roy (TX), and Cory Mills (FL) held a panel discussion about the assassination attempt on Monday, per the New York Post. 

During the discussion, Mills asked Shaffer, “Do you find it odd that literally only days after the attempted assassination of President Donald J. Trump, while the roof was too sloped to place individuals for counter-sniper operations, that it wasn’t too sloped of a roof for the FBI to go ahead and tamper, in my opinion, with evidence by washing the roof off that may have had significant evidence on it?” 

Additionally, Mills asked Schaffer about the body of Crooks being cremated with the coroner having no knowledge of the event. “Yes, absolutely,” Shaffer said in response to both questions. Former Navy SEAL and founder of private military contractor Blackwater remarked, "It sounds like destruction of evidence." 

Mills said that the FBI has a lack of transparency about the matter, referring to the Crooks' online social media accounts as well as encrypted overseas messaging accounts. Shaffer told Biggs that Crooks had been seen on the premises of the Butler Farm Show with a rangefinder scope and said that the rangefinder should have elevated him from a "suspicious person" to a "person of interest" the day of the rally. “That would warrant some type of either investigatory detention or stop-and-question," he said. The FBI responded to the accusations later that day.  

“Any suggestion the FBI is interfering with congressional efforts to look into the attempted assassination which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, is inaccurate and unfounded,” the FBI said on Monday evening. "The FBI has been working closely with our law enforcement partners to conduct a thorough investigation into the shooting, and we have followed normal procedures in the handling of the crime scene and evidence.