FBI Director Kash Patel on Friday addressed the bureau’s investigation into Thomas Crooks, responding to Tucker Carlson’s claim that Trump’s would-be assassin had left digital warning signs of an impending attack.
The former Fox News host released a documentary accusing the FBI of concealing Crooks’ “online footprint” and highlighted disturbing social media posts allegedly made by the 20-year-old in the years before the July 13, 2024, Trump rally shooting in Butler, Pa.—raising doubts that he acted as a “lone wolf.”
“The investigation, conducted by over 480 FBI employees, revealed Crooks had limited online and in person interactions, planned and conducted the attack alone, and did not leak or share his intent to engage in the attack with anyone,” Patel wrote on X, providing an overview of the case.
As part of the investigation, the FBI director said the bureau “conducted over 1,000 interviews, addressed over 2,000 public tips, analyzed data extracted from 13 seized digital devices, reviewed nearly 500,000 digital files, collected, processed, and synchronized hundreds of hours of video footage, analyzed financial activity from 10 different accounts, and examined data associated with 25 social media or online forum accounts.”
The FBI’s new “rapid response” X account pushed back on Carlson’s claims, stating Thursday, “The FBI has never said Thomas Crooks had no online footprint. Ever.”
Carlson said he accessed Crooks’ Google Drive and uncovered numerous violent YouTube comments from 2019–2020, claiming the gunman left “a detailed digital trail of violent threats, including calls for assassination and political violence.”
“Thomas Crooks came within a quarter inch of destroying this country, and yet, a year and a half later, we still know almost nothing about him or why he did it. That’s because, for some reason, the FBI, even the current FBI, doesn’t want us to know,” Carlson argued.
Carlson pointed to Crooks’ exchanges with another YouTube user as evidence he wasn’t “a secretive lone wolf who never warned anyone he was planning violence.” He noted Crooks initially supported Trump and directed threats at prominent Democrats before “radically” turning on Trump during the 2020 Covid pandemic. The FBI has yet to release a motive for the shooting at the Butler Farm Show Fairgrounds.
Who is Thomas Crooks? pic.twitter.com/WwjvPGGRwS
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 14, 2025
Crooks Case Overview:
Over 480 FBI employees were involved in the Thomas Crooks investigation. Employees conducted over 1,000 interviews, addressed over 2,000 public tips, analyzed data extracted from 13 seized digital devices, reviewed nearly 500,000 digital files, collected,…
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) November 14, 2025
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