On July 30, 2024, over two weeks after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said the agency still does not know how the would-be alleged assassin got a rifle onto the roof from which he fired.

Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) asked Abbate if the agency knew how the 20-year-old would-be assassin was able to get the rifle onto the roof.

Abbate responded, “We don’t have definitive evidence yet as to how he got the rifle up there. Based on everything that’s been collected thus far — photos, video, eyewitness accounts — we do believe he likely had it in the backpack.”

Sen. Butler followed up by asking, “Broken down in the backpack?”

Abbate said, “We’re still assessing that. Our laboratory has taken, looked at the rifle itself and measured that against the backpack itself and, if placed in the backpack, it would extend outside, it would have been visible.”

He went on to say no witness has mentioned seeing the rifle sticking out of the backpack.

Abbate observed, “It’s possible that he broke the rifle down, although we don’t have conclusive evidence of that, and took it out of the bag on the roof in those moments before and reassembled it there, that’s one of the theories we’re looking at and working on right now.”

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AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.