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Two years after a would-be assassin nearly killed President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, we’re finally learning the truth—and it raises more questions than answers.
Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch forced the release of 27 pages of heavily redacted FBI records through a federal lawsuit, and what they reveal is disturbing. According to witness statements in the documents, Thomas Crooks wasn’t just some lone wolf who snapped. He was making “hateful comments” directed at Trump before climbing onto that roof. He got into an altercation with rally attendees. People saw him acting suspiciously. And somehow, none of it triggered the Secret Service.
Think about that for a moment. A witness told FBI agents she saw Crooks climbing the building after an interaction with a group of people. Another attendee reported hearing Crooks making “hateful” comments toward Trump just before he took the stage. This wasn’t hidden. This was happening in plain sight, minutes before the shooting that killed firefighter Corey Comperatore and left Trump wounded.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton put it bluntly: “It should not have taken two years and a federal lawsuit to find out that the Butler shooter was involved in an altercation with Trump supporters and made hateful comments towards Trump at the Butler rally minutes before he nearly killed Trump.”
He’s right. Why did we have to sue to get this information? What else is the FBI sitting on? The Bureau concluded last year that Crooks acted alone, but the circumstances keep getting stranger. The drone flights over the fairgrounds. The photos taken by law enforcement an hour before the shooting. The connectivity issues plaguing the Secret Service at exactly the wrong moment. And now we learn he was openly hostile to Trump within earshot of multiple witnesses.
The American people deserve a full accounting of what happened that day. Not heavily redacted documents released under court order. Not carefully managed narratives. The truth. Because every new revelation makes the official story harder to swallow.
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