The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a new tranche of documents detailing communications involving Thomas Matthew Crooks, the individual responsible for the July 2024 shooting at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The newly disclosed records offer additional insights into Crooks' digital activities, though significant questions about his contacts and motives remain unanswered.
"Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19." Matthew Crooks, Father of Thomas Crooks
The release of these 249 pages of documents comes after Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. The lawsuit was initiated following the FBI's failure to respond to a July 2024 request for information related to the shooting. While these pages provide new details, the Justice Department has indicated that the broader investigative file comprises approximately 75,000 pages, much of which remains unreleased to the public.
On July 13, 2024, Crooks, then 20 years old, opened fire from a rooftop overlooking President Trump's campaign event. During the incident, President Trump sustained injuries, retired firefighter Corey Comperatore was tragically killed, and two other rally attendees were wounded. Crooks was subsequently shot and killed by law enforcement personnel at the scene.
Among the newly released material are text messages recovered from Crooks' Samsung cellphone, which an FBI "Samsung Messaging Review" dated July 18, 2024, identified as relevant to the ongoing investigation. One notable exchange, occurring in February 2023, involved Crooks and an unidentified contact. The contact's message, "Woah that looks cool," followed a redacted message from Crooks. The contact then inquired, "Did you 3D print the parts?" Crooks replied several hours later, "Yes, except for the fan blades." The records do not specify what Crooks had created or whether the 3D printed components were associated with a firearm, another 3D printing project, or an unrelated item. This conversation reportedly also included discussions about coursework at different colleges.
Another series of messages reviewed by investigators involved an unidentified individual on Christmas Day in 2022. The unknown contact wrote, "Thanks for the gifts," to which Crooks responded, "Your welcome. Thanks as well." The content or nature of these gifts was not explained in the documents.
A separate FBI communication, dated July 19, 2024, documented another chat between Crooks and a person whose name was redacted. This conversation reportedly spanned from May 2023 to January 2024. The outgoing messages attributed to Crooks were largely brief phrases, repeated words, and what appeared to be random strings of characters, as noted by Trending Politics. Examples included "Hello," "Yolo," "890," "red," "Yup red," and various iterations involving the word "red." Other messages consisted of seemingly nonsensical combinations of letters and numbers. Crucially, the incoming side of this particular conversation was entirely redacted, leaving the context and the identity of Crooks' interlocutor largely unknown.
These new documents also complement previously reported information regarding Crooks' interest in 3D printing. Earlier investigative material, provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, included a statement from Crooks' father, Matthew Crooks. The elder Crooks informed investigators that his son had once successfully created a Glock 19 firearm using a 3D printer. "Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19," Matthew Crooks stated. He further recounted personally firing one round from the 3D printed firearm but stopped due to concerns about the frame potentially exploding. Matthew Crooks also told investigators that he did not permit his son to use the weapon.
Beyond digital communications, the latest FBI production includes other evidence collected during the investigation. This material encompasses 40 images and eight flight logs recovered from a drone utilized by Crooks. The images were reportedly captured between February 6 and February 27, 2024, within the Pittsburgh area. Significantly, one flight was logged in Butler on July 13, 2024, the very day of the assassination attempt. The records also contained DHL notifications pertaining to a shipment originating from Hong Kong, though the contents of this shipment were not detailed in the released material. Investigators also recovered political fundraising text messages sent to Crooks, which included appeals from then-Senate candidate Raphael Warnock.
While these newly released FBI records provide additional granular detail about Thomas Matthew Crooks' digital footprint and activities leading up to the July 2024 shooting, they concurrently underscore the substantial gaps in public understanding. The identities of several key contacts remain redacted or otherwise undisclosed, and large portions of the conversations themselves are still hidden from view. Furthermore, the documents do not establish whether any of the unidentified contacts possessed prior knowledge of Crooks’ subsequent attack. For the time being, these messages offer investigators and the public a limited, albeit new, glimpse into Crooks’ communications before the tragic events of July 2024, with much of the FBI’s extensive case file yet to be made public.
