More than two years after a gunman opened fire on President Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, newly surfaced federal records reveal disturbing details about the shooter's preparation, and Trump is demanding to know why the FBI didn't find them sooner.
Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to target the FBI's conduct under former President Joe Biden and former Director Christopher Wray, saying that by the time he returned to the White House on January 20, critical evidence tied to the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania had vanished or been compromised. Newsmax reported that Trump wrote the information was "missing, altered, corrupted, or gone," adding: "New info was just found! Why wasn't it seen long ago?"
The posts followed new reporting from the New York Post, which obtained federal records provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley as part of his ongoing investigation into the attack. Those records describe shooter Thomas Crooks' escalating fixation on firearms, his reconnaissance of the rally site the day before the shooting, and a pseudonym he used to buy gun-related supplies online.
Trump went further, calling the assassination attempt "a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed." He offered no evidence for that claim. He also said Wray "should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt."
The federal records paint a picture of a young man who methodically prepared for the attack. Crooks' father, Matthew Crooks, told investigators that his son developed an interest in firearms during the COVID-19 pandemic and grew skilled at shooting distances exceeding 100 yards. On July 12, 2024, one day before the rally, Crooks practiced at a local sportsman's club and conducted reconnaissance of the Butler event grounds.
The next morning, Matthew Crooks handed his son a Panther Arms A-15 rifle, believing the younger Crooks was headed back to the range. Hours later, Thomas Crooks climbed onto a rooftop near the rally and fired eight rounds toward the stage where Trump stood. A bullet struck Trump in the ear. Rally attendee Corey Comperatore was killed. Two others were wounded. A Secret Service sniper killed Crooks.
The records also describe unusual behavior Matthew Crooks observed shortly before the shooting: his son pacing and talking to himself while cleaning a firearm. And Crooks used the pseudonym "Bob Dole" for online purchases of firearms-related items, a detail that, according to Breitbart, was reported alongside the revelation that an anonymous donor paid for Crooks' cremation after his death.
One discrepancy stands out in the record. The newly reported federal documents say Matthew Crooks gave his son the rifle on the morning of July 13. But the FBI had previously stated the father handed over the weapon that afternoon, believing his son intended to visit the sportsman's club. No explanation for the conflicting timelines has been offered.
Grassley's Senate Judiciary Committee investigation is not the only congressional effort pressing for answers. Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, issued a subpoena to the FBI for records related to the Butler attack, citing a year of stonewalling. Johnson's subpoena seeks security camera footage of Crooks' movements, ballistics and bullet trajectory reports, drone analysis, social media records, email accounts, internet search history, and call logs.
"One year following the assassination attempt of President Trump, the American people still do not have answers to all of their questions about the breakdown of security at the Butler campaign rally and detailed information about the would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks," Johnson told the New York Post.
The pattern of threats against Trump has not slowed since Butler. Federal authorities have arrested individuals for posting violent threats against the president online, and multiple federal cases involving alleged assassination plots remain active in the courts.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah framed the problem bluntly. "More than two years after the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the American people still know very little about Thomas Crooks, the almost-successful assassin," Lee said.
FBI Director Kash Patel, who replaced Wray, promised in May that the bureau would be "fully transparent" about the investigation. "You're going to know everything we know," Patel said. Johnson characterized his subpoena as "friendly, not adversarial", a nudge to make good on that promise.
The FBI's handling of the investigation is only half the story. The Secret Service's security breakdown at Butler has been documented in painful detail by multiple congressional and government probes. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe acknowledged that the agency missed radio transmissions from local law enforcement who had identified the armed shooter on the roof before he opened fire.
"The sole responsibility of our agency is to make sure our protectees are never put in danger. We fell short of that in Butler," Rowe told investigators.
The failures ran deep. The Secret Service had no drone at the July 13 rally and had declined an offer from a local agency to fly one. Counter-snipers deployed to protect Trump had no radio link to local law enforcement, the first time snipers had been sent to support Trump's detail under those conditions. A Government Accountability Office review later found the Secret Service received threat intelligence about a threat to Trump's life ten days before the rally, but that information never reached the personnel developing the site security plan.
A separate federal indictment involving an alleged assassination threat against Trump underscores how persistent the danger has been, even as the government's own security apparatus struggled to keep pace.
Multiple Secret Service employees were placed on administrative leave after the attack, and Oversight Chairman James Comer called for accountability. "Holding negligent employees accountable is the first step," Comer said. But despite multiple investigations confirming the attack was preventable, no supervisors have been disciplined. Some were promoted.
Christopher Wray, whom Trump originally nominated to lead the FBI during his first term, resigned before Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. The FBI said during its 2024 investigation that it had not identified any co-conspirators or anyone with advance knowledge of Crooks' attack. Whether the bureau has updated or revised that finding in light of the newly reported records remains unclear.
The Justice Department's broader posture on threats against Trump has shifted since the change in administrations, but the core question from Butler has not moved: how did a 20-year-old with a rifle, a fake name, and a day of practice get close enough to nearly kill a president?
That the FBI investigated the attack as both an attempted assassination and potential domestic terrorism, and still left Congress fighting for basic documents more than two years later, tells its own story. Grassley's investigation continues. Johnson's subpoena awaits compliance. And the federal courts continue processing cases tied to ongoing threats against the president.
Trump posted his Truth Social broadside on the same day the new records surfaced. The timing was pointed. So was the question he asked: "Why wasn't it seen long ago?"
When the people in charge of protecting a president and investigating his near-murder can't produce straight answers for two years running, the public has every right to wonder who those institutions are actually serving.