Iran or Not Iran

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) urged the FBI to “come to a conclusion” on whether the two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this year were linked to Iran. Speaking to CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Oct. 6, Turner called on the FBI to release its findings from investigations into would-be assassins Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot at Trump during a Pennsylvania rally in July, and Ryan Wesley Routh, who prosecutors say hid at Trump’s Florida golf course with a rifle for 12 hours with the intention to kill Trump before a Secret Service agent found him.

In the first case, the FBI has not publicly disclosed a motive. Days after the July 13 attempt, FBI officials said that Crooks, who was killed by Secret Service snipers, had acted alone. The FBI has also not ascribed a particular motive in the second case, although court documents submitted by prosecutors in the case have noted that the suspect apparently wrote a self-published book that encouraged Iran to kill the 45th president.