A few things about Thomas Crooks, Trump’s would-be assassin
It’s been widely remarked that we know next to nothing about Thomas Crooks, the young man who shot Trump in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks himself was shot dead that day. The FBI – headed by Wray at the time – seemed to be saying that Crooks had not much online presence to speak of, which certainly might have been true but seemed rather unusual for someone his age.
Also, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, and many facts about the alleged culprit Tyler Robinson came out, it seemed that Crooks might have been of similar ilk although we didn’t know.
Now we’re learning this, according to Miranda Devine [my emphasis]:
Thanks to an enterprising source who uncovered Crooks’ hidden digital footprint, we can see that [Wray’s deputy] Abbate misled Congress by omission, because he left out an entire section of Crooks’ online interactions from January to August 2020 when he did an ideological backflip and went from rabidly pro-Trump to rabidly anti-Trump and then went dark, never seeming to post again.
Among the 17 accounts uncovered by our source were ones on YouTube, Snapchat, Venmo, Zelle, GroupMe, Discord, Google Play, Quizlet, Chess.com and Quora.
The online interactions from when Crooks was ages 15 to 17 give us a better understanding of his evolution into an assassin, and invite more questions about what — or who — reversed his ideology.
“The danger Crooks posed was visible for years in public online spaces,” says the source. “His radicalization, violent rhetoric and obsession with political violence were all documented under his real name. The threat wasn’t hidden.” …
He left a digital trail of violent threats, extremist ideology and admiration for mass violence. He spoke openly of political assassination, posted under his real name and was even flagged by other users who mentioned law enforcement in their replies. Despite this, his account remained active for more than five years — and was only removed the day after the shooting.
“None of this online activity was referenced in the final congressional report released in December 2024, making this even more troubling,” the source said.
The idea is that either the FBI is utterly and totally incompetent – always very possible – or is covering up the fact that they investigated this guy and weren’t alarmed (definitely possible), or perhaps both. The official word from the FBI is that Crooks was not on their radar screen until July 13, 2024, the day of the shooting.
Oh, and Crooks also had an online interest – much like Tyler Robinson – in furries and gender-bending stuff.
What do you think of Judge William Fitzpatrick’s order in the Comey case? I thought grand jury stuff was sealed.
Of course the FIB is deliberately covering up.
This emerges from Tucker Carlson’s recent 35m documentary on unearthing Thomas Crooks social media trail. Of course, TC is a deservedly suspect, if not hated, name here.
Thus, let me link to one of the many deeper commentaries on these developments.
YouTuber Jesse on Fire (with a half million subscribers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ__SG0S1G8
Neo: “Oh, and Crooks also had an online interest – much like Tyler Robinson – in furries and gender-bending stuff.”
A new point I’d not read before! Which segues to the rising Trans Mad violence and the cult Zizik (?) murders.
This development is quite disturbing.
Forgot to add. TC notices the time of Crooks shift: Covid year, 2020. Specifically, August, IIRC.
I read through the Tucker Carlson email revelations. The problem is that they don’t reveal much other than Crooks hated Trump, and we knew that; he shot Trump. What they don’t reveal is any contacts and “handlers” managing what Crooks did.
I agree that the hint of trans madness is disturbing.
There’s a lot of suspicious activity (and non-activity) going on the day of—in fact the hours before—the shooting in Butler, PA.
Still, the “but the roof [where Crooks shot] had too much of a slope for us expert professionals to bother taking seriously” gambit, cobbled rather shabbily together by the Secret Service Numera Una, really takes the cake. THAT absurd, gobsmacking excuse points without a doubt to a coverup and should be enshrined in a special “IDIOTS” Hall of Fame.
Whom did she really believe she’d be able to convince???
Barry Meislin:
Yes, that was exceedingly lame. But extreme incompetence is always a possibility.
”…seemed to be saying that Crooks had not much online presence to speak of…”
I’ve heard that said about him, but I also recall seeing on the night of the shooting a screenshot of a social media page with Crooks’ name and photo in which he described himself as an “anti-fascist.” The account was locked, so only the basic profile was public, not any details. But since only leftists use that term to describe themselves, it put to bed the claim at the time that Trump’s shooter was “right-wing”, a claim Democrats were making online that night.
Does the FBI not have the ability to view such accounts, even under subpoena, once the social media service deletes them?
Kate,
I watched Carlson’s video. I agree it doesn’t reveal much, but, unfortunately, Carlson does what he too often does, making hyperbolic statements and insinuating connections that the data elements in the video don’t prove.
He states as a statement of fact, “surely the FBI knew of him…” several times, based on goofy things Crooks typed when he was 15. If there is an FBI agent assigned to researching every 15 year old who types something dumb on the Internet the FBI is much, much larger than I imagine.
But, if we believe Carlson’s statement that the FBI knew of him so many years before he shot Donald Trump than the next, logical conclusion is there is a reason the FBI didn’t interview or apprehend Crooks. Why, they must have wanted Crooks to go rogue, or, even worse, the FBI was turning Crooks themselves.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Carlson takes miniscule evidence and blows it up into outrageous conspiracies. But, of course, he’s just asking questions.
One of the strange things was the FBI having Crooks’ body cremated the day after the shooting and his room stripped to the walls and cleaned as well. Conspiracy?
Paul in Boston,
Crooks was cremated 10 days after his death. An autopsy was performed and then his body was released to his parents.
Seems like a logical procedure under the circumstances.
So what is it? The Secret Service and the FBI are bloated and ineffective public agencies or they were lying?
==
Federal law enforcement is a scandal.
Several details about Crooks and his matrix: (1) his father and uncle – both of whom live around Pittsburgh – were not on speaking terms and hadn’t crossed paths in five years; (2) his cousins reported that he would hide from the rest of the family when they gathered at the grandparents’ house; (3) his hygiene was wretched; (4) pictures of his father make plain the man is a wreck physically; (5) both parents are in the mental health trade.
I can buy incompetence for everything that happened before July 13, but once we get to the events of that day, it’s very hard to see this long string of “coincidences” and gross failures as anything less than enemy action.
Stuck inside the word “coincidence” is the word “coincide”. Coincidence?
For various Big Deals, and little deals infuriating our daily lives, to happen, certain unlikelihoods (permission to use without attribution) must coincide.
Something which happens once every hundred days at random has a one over one hundred chance of happening tomorrow. Something which happens every twenty days, one over twenty. Once which hardly ever happens at all is one over….how much?
If all three of these must coincide for something to happen, the mathematical probability is one over one hundred times one over twenty (one over two thousand) which is to say the likelihood of it happening tomorrow is one in two thousand) times one over hardly ever. So when it does happen, what mathematical result do we have which makes purposeful direction more likely?
We all have our own view of probability. But when you add up–which is to say multiply, the things which went wrong–ed. comment, things which were done wrong which could have been done right according to protocol and the usual way things have been done for years but this time were done wrong all at once–the number has a lot of zeros after the decimal point.
And since human agency, official agency, was involved in each of these coinciding unlikelihoods, maybe the mate doesn’t apply.
The alternative is….?
Okay, Aubrey’s peddling a conspiracy theory. So do the math and tell me what you get, huh?
Would somebody like to go through the train of events and non-events and make the point that one–pick one–wasn’t necessary and would have prevented Crooks getting off his shot?