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President Trump blasted the “Crooked Joe Biden FBI” and “Dirty Cop Christopher Wray” after new details emerged concerning Butler, Pennsylvania, would-be assassin Thomas Crooks.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted the “Crooked Joe Biden FBI” and “Dirty Cop Christopher Wray” after new details emerged concerning Butler, Pennsylvania, would-be assassin Thomas Crooks.
Trump accused the FBI under former President Joe Biden and former FBI Director Wray of mishandling the investigation into the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt and alleged that information was missing when he returned to office.
“By the time I got into Office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “New info was just found! Why wasn’t it seen long ago?”
Trump further alleged without providing evidence that the assassination attempt was “a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed.”
The FBI said during its 2024 investigation that it had not identified any co-conspirators or anyone with advance knowledge of Crooks’ attack.
Trump’s comments followed new reporting by the New York Post based on federal records provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, as part of his investigation into the Butler shooting.
The records reportedly provide new details about Crooks’ growing interest in firearms and long-distance shooting before the assassination attempt.
Crooks’ father, Matthew, told investigators that his son became interested in firearms during the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually grew knowledgeable about shooting at distances exceeding 100 yards.
Matthew Crooks said he gave his son the Panther Arms A-15 rifle used in the attack on the morning of July 13 because he believed Crooks was going to a shooting range.
The FBI had previously said that Crooks’ father gave him the rifle that afternoon believing he intended to visit the Sportsman’s Club.
Investigators said Crooks had practiced at the club the previous day and conducted reconnaissance of the Butler rally site before the shooting.
The Post also reported that Crooks used the pseudonym “Bob Dole” for online purchases of firearms-related items and had become intensely focused on improving his shooting ability.
Federal records also describe unusual behavior observed by his father shortly before the shooting, including Crooks pacing and talking to himself while cleaning a firearm, according to the Post.
Crooks fired eight rounds from a rooftop toward Trump, striking him in the ear, killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore and wounding two others before a Secret Service sniper killed Crooks.
The FBI investigated the attack as an attempted assassination and potential domestic terrorism.
Trump on Tuesday said Wray “should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt.”
Wray, whom Trump nominated to lead the FBI during his first administration, resigned before Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.