Newly surfaced FBI records show Thomas Matthew Crooks' father searched for ways to keep his son away from firearms about two months before the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania — then handed him the rifle used in the shooting anyway, according to documents the House task force that investigated the attack says it never saw.
Why it matters: More than two years after the shooting, the country still doesn't have a full account of how Crooks got his rifle onto the roof near Trump's rally — and the lawmakers who ran the official congressional investigation say federal agencies withheld basic facts from them the entire time. Fox News
Driving the news:
FBI records obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) show Crooks' father searched in May 2024 — about two months before the July 13 attack — for ways to prevent his son from accessing firearms, and separately confirm he handed his son the rifle used that day. Fox News
The same records show Crooks used the pseudonym "Bob Dole" to buy ammunition and rifle-capacity parts from Amazon and other retailers, shipped to his parents' home. RedState
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who chaired the bipartisan House task force that investigated the shooting, said federal agencies never shared this material during the probe: "During our piece that we were working on, none of the federal agencies were working with us at all… This is two years later. Nobody's gotten back to us." RedState
FBI Director Kash Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 15 that investigators found "no evidence" Crooks communicated with anyone besides his parents. Washington Examiner
By the numbers:
2 months — how far before the July 13, 2024 attack Crooks' father searched for ways to block his son's gun access
10 days — how quickly Crooks' body was cremated after the shooting, funded by an unnamed "anonymous donor"
2+ years — time elapsed since the attack with lawmakers still seeking basic answers
What they're saying: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.): "I think we have got to have a full accounting of everything that happened on that day, all of the failures, law enforcement failures that occurred." He added that "pretty much everything we know about this is from whistleblowers," warning of creating "a JFK situation." RedState
The other side: Patel's testimony pushes back on the idea of a broader cover-up or communication network around the shooting — his account, that investigators found no evidence Crooks spoke to anyone beyond his parents, is the FBI's most direct public response yet to the lawmakers' complaints that they were kept in the dark. Washington Examiner
What's next:
Grassley's Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry is ongoing; lawmakers are demanding full disclosure of remaining records. RedState
The identity of the anonymous donor who paid for Crooks' cremation ten days after the shooting remains undisclosed.
The bottom line: Two years on, the basic facts of how a 20-year-old got a rifle onto a roof near a former president are still trickling out through congressional subpoenas rather than the FBI's own account — and the lawmakers who ran the official probe say they were kept in the dark the whole time.
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