by WorldTribune Staff, September 16, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
President Donald Trump said the Biden era FBI destroyed or altered key investigative information in the attempt on his life by would-be assassin Thomas Crooks at the July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The president wrote in a post to Truth Social:
President Donald Trump said ex-FBI chief Christopher Wray should ‘pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt.’
“Everybody knows the Crooked Joe Biden FBI didn’t do what they should have with respect to the Lunatic who shot me in Butler, PA. By the time I got into Office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone.
“New info was just found! Why wasn’t it seen long ago? This was all a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election, that failed.
“Dirty Cop Christopher Wray should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt, and certainly for the things he said. GOD BLESS AMERICA — MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
The FBI said during its 2024 investigation that it had not identified any co-conspirators or anyone with advance knowledge of Crooks’s attack.
Trump’s comments followed new reporting by the New York Post based on federal records provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley as part of his investigation into the Butler shooting.
The records reportedly provide new details about Crooks’s growing interest in firearms and long-distance shooting before the assassination attempt.
“The trove of files includes FBI interviews with Thomas’ father, Matthew, who revealed he ‘never really had a father/son bond’ with the gunman, and that his stoic son rarely expressed strong emotions, hardly laughed and was very difficult to read,” The Post’s report said.
When he initially showed interest in firarms, during the pandemic, Thomas was a “terrible” shot — “he could not hit the paper [target],” his father told investigators, estimating it took 4-5 years of practice before he could even do that.
“Eventually, with practice, Thomas became a better marksman, coming home with range targets showing off to his dad how well he did with a target placed over 100 yards away,” the federal records obtained by The Post show.
After he questioned his son about why he was “going out so far,” Thomas explained, “he wanted to see how far he could shoot with rudimentary sights.”
He found he was able to shoot even further distances after he bought a prism sight, eventually becoming “very knowledgeable” about how to measure and zero-in on a target, and knew exactly how many clicks it would take to change the specific angle on the sight.
As Thomas’s interest in guns grew, he started buying large numbers of Amazon packages, including “parts, tools and items to increase the capacity of his rifle,” his father said.
Thomas sused the pseudonym “Bob Dole” for his delivery address, a bit of misguided paranoia he picked up after his father’s Citizens Bank checking account was hacked and several fraudulent BetMGM charges were made on his account.
Crooks’s father said he frequently caught Thomas talking to himself, a quirk that “became more noticeable over the years.”
Thomas “never showed interest in girls.” He “repeatedly denied” being gay over the years, his father said.
Crooks’s father mentioned the family was “racking” their brains trying to figure out why Thomas decided to make an attempt on Trump’s life, killing one rally-goer and severely injuring two others in the process.
Thomas “never showed any signs indicating something was wrong,” his father told investigators.
Also included in the documents provided by Grassley and obtained by The Post was one indicating an “anonymous donor” paid for the cremation of Crooks just days after the assassination attempt.
“Anonymous donor paid for cremation,” reads a note at the end of a summary of an interview the gunman’s father, Matthew, conducted with federal investigators.
The information appears to have been gleaned from a lawyer for the family, according to the document.
If he can’t get answers, who can? That is a major problem. pic.twitter.com/BOzQvHrUYC
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) September 15, 2026
