The 20-year-old sniper who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last month, now dead at the hands of police, was using a multitude of overseas messaging apps – all encrypted, according to a new report.

The Daily Wire said it was Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who is on a congressional committee investigating that planned violence, who reported the unusual aspect of the online life of Thomas Matthew Crooks.

“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aide need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad, where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into? That’s a question I’ve had since day one,” he explained to reporters at the time.

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The report noted the retired Green Beret then “ripped the FBI and Secret Service for not releasing more information from the investigations into the attempted assassination.”

Crooks, from the roof of an unguarded building adjacent to Trump’s rally, actually got off multiple shots at Trump, with one grazing his ear.

Trump was blanketed by Secret Service but immediately got up, raising his fist in in the air and shouting, “Fight, fight, fight,” in what almost certainly will become one of the most recognized photographic images of the decade.

Waltz explained the investigators have not “learned that much” about Crooks’ accounts, but he did reveal they were based in Belgium, Germany and New Zealand.

The New York Post said the apps allow for text messages to travel through and be encrypted so that only can be read on a recipient’s device.

“They need to be releasing information as they come across it because this wasn’t an isolated incident,” he said. “The threats are continually Iran’s threats.”

There have been confirmed reports that Iran was trying to orchestrate an attempt of Trump’s life just at the Time Crooks’ fired his shots.

The congressional committee has 13 members, including seven Republicans, and already has questioned leaders of the Secret Service and the FBI over the security failures that day.

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Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.