FBI Director Kash Patel told investigative journalist Catherine Herridge that hatred for the U.S. government and the two-party system played a role in Thomas Matthew Crooks’ attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pa.
Herridge asked Patel what motivated Crooks, 20, to try to kill Trump, then the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Patel’s answer appeared to depart from previous FBI statements when bureau officials said they were unable to find a motive or ideology behind the assassination attempt. The FBI director — appearing on Herridge’s show “Straight to the Point” by the Los Angeles Times Media Group — told her that Trump was “satisfied” with his agency’s investigation into that fateful day. Patel stopped short of saying the case was closed.
“He [Crooks], as has been publicized, had a basically hateful relationship with the United States government, talked disparagingly about both political parties, to include President Trump, and talked about the need to take matters into his own hands. And, unfortunately, that’s what he did,” Patel said when Herridge asked about Crooks’ motive. (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Alleges Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Thomas Crooks Morphed From Die-Hard Supporter To Wanting Him Dead)
Patel was later asked if Trump was satisfied with the FBI’s findings regarding the July 2024 assassination attempt. He emphatically responded “yes.”
Herridge asked Patel, “Is the Thomas Crooks case a closed case?”
“How we treat cases like this of such great public importance is we put them in a pending-slash-inactive status, so if there’s new information that comes in, we can receive it and react to it, and we don’t want to foreclose that possibility,” the director said.
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“When we came in, our job was to both treat the president as a president the United States and [as] a victim and remind the American public that there were three other victims, and tragically, one person even lost his life,” Patel said, referring to the late Corey Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter and attendee at Trump’s Butler rally who died shielding his wife and daughters from Crooks’ gunfire.
“So, there are certain victims’ rights that we have to honor,” Patel added. “But what we did and what we presented and what we released is the full findings that we are able to publicize to the world that definitively answer questions regarding Butler. We seized dozens and dozens of devices. We exploited and got into every single one of those devices. We got on to all the online platforms and social media sites of the assailant, of Crooks. And we did a recanvassing just to double down since we got in and inherited this case, and we gave out information to Congress and the public that the prior administration refused to do.”
Patel told Herridge that, based on the FBI’s evidence, the “conclusive finding of the matter” is that Crooks acted alone trying to end Trump’s life.
“Is there evidence of foreign involvement?” the journalist then asked Patel.
“As we indicated in our public disclosures, Thomas Crooks had some online platforms where he engaged through email with a couple of individuals overseas, and we chased those down literally to the end,” the FBI director said. “And basically it was just that — online email accounts overseas, without any substantive communication.”
Days after the Pennsylvania assassination attempt, outlets reported that U.S. authorities received intelligence regarding a reported Iranian plot to kill Trump. No connection between this alleged plot and Crooks’ attempt was ever found. In November 2024, the Department of Justice charged three people in connection to an alleged Iranian conspiracy to assassinate Trump.
Herridge also asked Patel to explain “the discrepancies and confusion over Crooks’ online activity” prior to him opening fire at Trump’s rally.
“In media, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and everyone’s entitled to put out whatever they want to put out. But what we, the FBI, are not entitled to do is trample over your First Amendment rights. And so while people are asking why the prior [Biden] administration didn’t find Thomas Crooks earlier, and it’s a valid question, by the way,” Patel said. “One, you can ask the prior administration, we weren’t here. But two, this FBI, or any FBI, doesn’t have the ability to go out and monitor, nor should it people who are on YouTube or on social media platforms or on email platforms.”
“We have to balance both the criminality, if there is such, versus the First Amendment protections, which we must adhere to,” the FBI director said.
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