Would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks texted mystery persons
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
The FBI says Thomas Crooks texted mystery people. That’s it. That’s the whole update from an investigation into a would-be presidential assassin.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
President Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks , exchanged messages with an “unknown contact” about 3D-printed “parts” and seemingly chatted in code words with another unidentified individual, FBI documents released Friday show.
The electronic communications were obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Judicial Watch — weeks after The Post reported on Crooks’ experiments with his 3D printer , which included building a firearm. “Did you 3D print the parts?” read a Feb. 9, 2023, message Crooks received on his Samsung device from an individual described by the FBI as an “unknown contact.” Several hours later it appears that Crooks responded, “Yes, except for the fan blades.” The two then appear to discuss their coursework at different colleges.
The messages are among dozens included in the newly-released documents that were “deemed pertinent” to the investigation of the July 13, 2024, Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., the FBI noted. “Woah that looks cool,” the unknown person texted Crooks just before asking about the “parts,” in response to a completely redacted message sent by the would-be Trump assassin.
Federal investigative records obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and reviewed by The Post last month showed that Crooks’ father told investigators that his son owned a 3D printer and once tried to fashion his own handgun. “Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19,” the gunman’s father, Matthew, told investigators.
Matthew explained that he tried the 3D-printed gun out, but only fired a single round from it because he feared the frame would explode. Matthew indicated that he did not allow Thomas to use the 3D-printed Glock 19.
Judicial Watch also obtained bizarre communications described by the FBI as a “chat thread” between Crooks and a recipient whose name is redacted. The conversation occurred between May 21, 2023, and January 3, 2024, and is largely comprised of one– or two-word messages and character strings. “Hello … Hello red …Hello red … Hdudhdbdbbd … 7888ejdj …Yolo … Ddodjjf … 890 … Hdjd … Djdj … red … Yup red … Hello … Jhhhuuh … Hhdj … Jjjjjjjjjjjj … Hello red … Red red,” are among the messages sent by Crooks.
The incoming messages Crooks may have been responding to are not included in the document. Messages from Christmas Day 2022 show Crooks appears to have traded “gifts” with an unidentified individual. “Thanks for the gifts,” read one incoming text. “Your welcome.
Thanks as well,” Crooks appeared to respond. It’s unclear why the FBI determined that these communications were “pertinent” to their investigation. Reps for the bureau did not respond to a request for comment.
The documents further show that the FBI was able to extract images and flight logs from Crooks drone. Between February 6, 2024, and February 27, 2024, Crooks snapped aerial photos of PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively, as well as railroad tracks and other locations arounds Western Pennsylvania.
Data from a drone flight in Butler from the day of the attempted assassination was also pulled, several hours before Crooks took aim at the 45th president during a campaign rally and opened fire, striking Trump in the ear, wounding two attendees — James Copenhaver and David Dutch — and killing one, Corey Comperatore. “These latest records reveal more pieces of the puzzle surrounding Thomas Crooks,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The FBI should stop the slow drip of heavily redacted records and immediately provide the full investigative record — especially since the death last week of James Copenhaver, who was severely injured from being shot during the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
The FBI says Thomas Crooks texted mystery people. That’s it. That’s the whole update from an investigation into a would-be presidential assassin. We’re supposed to accept that these communications are “pertinent” and move on. Pertinent to what? Pertinent to whom? The word is doing an awful lot of work for a bureau that has spent years telling Americans to trust the process.
This matters because Crooks wasn’t a random internet troll. He climbed onto a roof with a rifle and nearly killed a president. If he was talking to other people in the days before that, the public has a right to know who they are and what was said. Instead, we get a bureaucratic shrug. The FBI is treating the most important investigation of the decade like a sealed grand jury file. That’s not transparency. That’s a stonewall.
We’re not asking for every tip and lead to be aired live. But there’s a difference between protecting a case and protecting institutions from embarrassment. The bureau has a habit of giving the country breadcrumbs when it wants to control the story, then acting surprised when nobody trusts the final report. Crooks’s phone is a hard piece of evidence. The people on the other end of those texts are not a sidebar. They may be the whole story.
America First voters already know the federal bureaucracy plays defense for itself. This is another reason to push for real reform, not promises. Somebody in the FBI knows who Crooks was texting. Until they tell us, the public will rightly assume the silence means something they don’t want us to see.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.