Federal Bureau of Investigation leads agents investigating second assassination attempt Life of Former President Trump According to a whistleblower statement to Congress last year, he allegedly posted anti-Trump rhetoric on social media — though the bureau has described those claims as “categorically false.”
Jeffery Veltri is FBI Special Agent in Charge The bureau is based in Miami, overseeing neighboring areas such as West Palm Beach, where suspect Ryan Routh was arrested Sunday and is accused of pointing a gun at the former president and current GOP presidential nominee.
Veltri took the stage during a press conference on Monday and reassured the public that the FBI is conducting a thorough investigation.
“We take this extremely serious and are committed to uncovering what led up to these incidents,” Veltri said.
FBI Miami Field Office Special Agent Jeffrey B. Veltri addresses the media at a press conference with updates on the investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Trump, West Palm Beach, Florida, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (MEGA for Fox News Digital)
“I want to emphasize that we’ve been in this investigation for a little over 24 hours, so we’re going to publicly disclose as much as we can during our investigation,” he said. “We should also emphasize that the U.S. Attorney’s office is investigating the allegations, and that limits some of the details we can share publicly.”
But soon after Veltri came forward, reports resurfaced on social media outlining claims made by an FBI informant to the House Judiciary Committee last year that Veltri had allegedly The FBI ordered him to remove anti-Trump social media posts. These allegations were first made by a journalist. Washington Times article in November.
In March 2023, Veltri was appointed Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Field Office.
Trump International Golf Club on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Lynn Sladky)
“President Donald Trump’s home is located within the Miami field office’s area of responsibility. It was well known that Veltri was strongly and vocally anti-Trump,” the outlet reported last year. “Wray, Abbate and Moore wanted to make sure Veltri appeared apolitical, so Veltri was ordered to delete all of his Facebook and social media posts that were anti-Trump.”
The whistleblower alleged that top FBI officials, including FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate, and Executive Assistant Director Jennifer Moore, were involved in instructing Veltri to clean up his social media accounts.
The individual also alleged that FBI officials were not concerned with Veltri’s apparent anti-Trump bias, but rather were concerned with whether “information relating to Veltri’s political bias could be removed from the public domain.”
From left, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw attend a press conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, regarding the attempted assassination of former President Trump, on September 16, 2024. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The 2023 report resurfaced this week when it was reported that there was a second assassination attempt on Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach. Conservatives on social media republished the article and accused Veltri of allegedly having “history.” Anti-Trump posts” While he is now leading the investigation into the deadly attack on Trump.
The FBI denied the whistleblower’s claims last year, when the news first broke.
“Special Agent in Charge Veltri was selected through a competitive process to lead the Miami Field Office and is tasked with carrying out the FBI’s mission in a fair and impartial manner,” the FBI said at the time. “Allegations of political bias influencing decisions, targeting of former military personnel, and the reported nature of SAC Veltri’s social media accounts and posts are categorically false.”
More recently, the agency said it has “full confidence” in Veltri’s leadership overseeing the investigation. An FBI official told Fox News Digital this week that bureau leadership did not ask or require Veltri to remove any of the alleged social media posts.
Trump assassination attempt suspect Ryan Routh is seen being taken into custody on Sunday, September 15, 2024, in bodycam footage released Monday. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office)
“The FBI has full confidence in the leadership of SAC Veltri of the Miami Field Office and the investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Trump. This investigation is the FBI’s top priority. We are working closely with our partners and hundreds of personnel at FBI Headquarters, Quantico, and numerous field offices are supporting these efforts. All of us at the FBI are committed to conducting this investigation to the letter, following the facts wherever they lead,” the FBI said in a statement to Fox Digital.
This year a whistleblower again cited Veltri in an allegation that the bureau improperly suspended security clearances for agents with “conservative views.” The whistleblower’s legal representative, Tristan Levitt, argued that the DOJ inspector general should conduct a full audit of the alleged abuses of security clearances, in which he specifically pointed to Veltri.
“Given the pattern of abuse of the security clearance process by SecD (the FBI’s security division) and retaliation against SecD employees who attempt to prevent those abuses, I also request that the OIG conduct a full review of the FBI’s security clearance process, how it has been abused — particularly by Dana Perkins and Jeffrey Veltri — and the role of FBI leadership in allowing these abuses to occur,” Levitt wrote in the complaint.
Ryan Routh, the armed man arrested at Trump golf course, used to post a lot about Trump and politics
Veltri joined the FBI in 2002 as a special agent, where he held assignments such as deploying to Iraq in 2006 to support the Regime Crimes Liaison Office, serving as a supervisory special agent with the Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters in 2011, and leading the agency’s civil rights unit in 2016, according to a press release in which he was named Miami’s new bureau chief in 2023.
FBI investigators carry a box of evidence from the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (MEGA for Fox News Digital)
Ryan Routh, 58, a suspect in the second assassination attempt against Trump this year, was arrested Sunday afternoon after pointing a rifle through a chain-link fence toward Trump. West Palm Beach Golf Club.
Trump was not injured in the attack. Routh was arrested in his car on I-95 after fleeing the golf course.
Routh posted prolifically on social media about world events, the war in Ukraine, politics and Trump, including a call in July for Vice President Kamala Harris to visit those injured in the deadly attack on Trump in Pennsylvania because “Trump will never do anything for them.”
Ryan W. Routh is handcuffed after his arrest during a traffic stop near Palm City, Florida, Sept. 15, 2024. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office/Handout via Reuters)
Raut brought to federal court On Monday morning, when he was seen laughing and smiling before appearing in court for the first time in the case.
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He is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with the serial number obliterated. Officials said he may have been attacked with extra charge.
Raut’s bail plea will be heard on September 23 and he will be arraigned on September 30.
