When FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Veltri addressed a room of reporters Sunday, he presented himself as a disinterested investigator in the second attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life. But Veltri was known at the FBI to be “adamantly and vocally anti-Trump,” according to a whistleblower account reported by The Washington Times.
“The FBI has assumed the role as the lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation,” said Veltri, who is in charge of the FBI Miami Field Office, in the press conference. “We will continue to support this investigation with the full resources of the FBI.”
Veltri appeared alongside Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg, and a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service to discuss the second assassination attempt against Trump, which occurred as the former president played golf Sunday afternoon in Palm Beach.
The attempted assassin allegedly hid in the bushes at Trump International Golf Club, and was aiming an SKS-style rifle through the fence when a Secret Service agent spotted and engaged the man. He fled, and the Martin County Sheriff’s Office apprehended him shortly thereafter.
Veltri assured those at the press conference the FBI would diligently investigate the matter.
“We’ve deployed a number of resources, including investigative teams, crisis response team members, bomb technicians, and evidence response team members,” he said.
Conflict of Interest?
Last year, however, a whistleblower told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI made Veltri scrub his anti-Trump social media posts before promoting him
