{"id":45631,"date":"2025-11-20T03:12:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T03:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45631\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T03:12:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T03:12:24","slug":"exclusive-fbi-never-shared-newly-unearthed-thomas-crooks-posts-stonewalled-investigation-furious-reps-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45631\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | FBI never shared newly unearthed Thomas Crooks posts, ‘stonewalled’ investigation, furious reps say"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FBI \u201cstonewalled\u201d the House investigation into Thomas Crooks\u2019 attempted assassination of President Trump<\/a>, two congressmen involved in the probe told The Post.<\/p>\n

On Monday, The Post reported on violent social media posts that are believed to be tied to Crooks. The online activity included numerous endorsements of political violence, and a severe turn from being a hardcore advocate for Trump to coming within a few millimeters of killing him.<\/p>\n

The FBI never shared those files with the congressional investigation, said Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Pat Fallon (R-Texas).<\/p>\n

Two congressman told The Post that the FBI \u201cstonewalled\u201d a House investigation into Thomas Matthew Crooks\u2019 attempted assassination of President Trump. Iron Clad USA \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

Crooks\u2019 newly revealed online footprint has spurred calls for a new investigation into what led him to shoot Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there\u2019s so many unanswered questions about it,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want people to handle the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know it wasn\u2019t done, it wasn\u2019t complete and the reason for that is they can\u2019t handle the truth,\u201d he said of how the FBI treated the congressional investigation. \u201cThey don\u2019t want people to handle the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was just one of several roadblocks the congressional investigators faced \u2014 ranging from Crooks\u2019 body being quickly cremated to his blood being washed from the roof he shot on, Kelly said.<\/p>\n

The House report was released in December, five months after Crooks nearly killed Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) claimed the FBI doesn\u2019t want people to \u201chandle the truth\u201d of the assassination attempt. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us came out of that feeling, \u2018You know what, we really got the answers we were looking for,\u2019\u201d Kelly said of the committee\u2019s meetings with the FBI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were stymied so much by the feds on what we could look at, what we couldn\u2019t look at,\u201d said Kelly \u2014 who is from Butler and was at the rally the day Trump was shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we were going to get stonewalled on a lot of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crooks was 20 years old when he was gunned down by Secret Service snipers in July 2024 after he shot at Trump. AP<\/p>\n

Secret Service agents help Trump off the stage in Butler, Pa., after he was shot on July 13, 2024. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fallon called for a new probe in light of the new info \u2014 saying he doesn\u2019t recall the FBI ever sharing the newly revealed details of Crooks\u2019 online footprint when he sat on the congressional investigation committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it would do any harm at all,\u201d Fallon said, echoing Kelly\u2019s complaints about the FBI being cagey with Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t investigate these things enough,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) called for a new probe into Crooks after new information on his social media history was reported. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Kelly and Fallon were among 13 members of the House who led the bipartisan investigation into the shooting, which concluded that Crooks had little notable digital footprint and left behind little indication that he might be a threat to anyone.<\/p>\n

But the new trove of social media posts paints a different picture.<\/p>\n

Violent artwork posted on a Deviant Art account believed to belong to Crooks. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n

Crooks\u2019 activity online and on social media ranged<\/a> from researching how to produce homemade bombs and how to shoot an AR-15 assault rifle \u201cas fast as possible,\u201d calling for the deaths of Jews and politicians, to advocating violence as the only way to bring about political change.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIMO the only way to fight the gov is with terrorism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building and set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people\/politicians\/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them,\u201d he wrote in an Aug. 5, 2020, post.<\/p>\n

Crooks\u2019 online accounts also had videos of him practicing shooting stances with what appeared to be a real handgun in his bedroom.<\/p>\n

An online account \u2014 believed to belong to Crooks \u2014 showing off weapons that he claimed to own. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n

But after reports of that activity emerged, FBI Director Kash Patel doubled down and insisted in an X post<\/a> that Crooks\u2019 digital footprint was unremarkable.<\/p>\n

Many aren\u2019t buying it, however, and are demanding that the assassination attempt be re-examined.<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Post that she and Trump<\/a> both want answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose questions are definitely deserving of answers and I understand why the public wants those answers, and I believe the president does too,\u201d Leavitt told Miranda Devine\u2019s \u201cPod Force One.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FBI \u201cstonewalled\u201d the House investigation into Thomas Crooks\u2019 attempted assassination of President Trump, two congressmen involved in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[858,153,5970,24224,9,11,10,25154,24845,7316,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-45631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-fbi","11":"tag-fbi-investigations","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-thomas-matthew-crooks","16":"tag-trump-rally-shooting","17":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}