Wray confronts Republican skepticism over Trump shooting probe

By David Morgan and Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director Christopher Wray told a congressional panel on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Wednesday that his agency will leave "no stone unturned" to discover how officials failed to stop the shooting.

Wray appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the shooting and the FBI's investigation of suspected shooter, 20-year-old nursing home aide Thomas Crooks, who got close enough to a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, to wound the Republican presidential candidate.

"I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated threat environment. And tragically, the ... assassination attempt is another example, particularly heinous," Wray testified. "We're going to leave no stone unturned. The shooter may be deceased, but the FBI investigation is very much ongoing."

Trump was shot in the ear, one rally attendee was killed and two others were wounded. Crooks was killed by law enforcement. The motive for the shooting remains unclear.

Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday in the face of bipartisan demands to quit over the failure to prevent the attempted assassination.

While Wray is likely to hear demands for details of the incident on Wednesday, the shooting probe appeared to be overshadowed from the start by partisan divisions within the committee.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said he expected Wray to answer questions about happened before, during and after the incident but expressed doubt about the FBI director's answers even before the questioning began.

"I'm sure you understand that a significant portion of the country has a healthy skepticism regarding the FBI's ability to conduct a fair, honest, open and transparent investigation," Jordan said.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, the panel's top Democrat, condemned the Trump shooting "unequivocally and unabashedly" but pointed to years of political threats and violence, and violent rhetoric from Republicans including Trump himself.

"If you think that this one assassin's bullet was a bolt out of the blue, and not part of a wave of violence that has threatened this nation for years, then you have missed the point," the New York Democrat said.

Wray has long faced opposition from hardline Republicans, some angered over the arrest of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress certified President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

(Reporting by David Morgan and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Nick Zieminski)