(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Last October, the pro-transparency group Judicial Watch helped this publication file a lawsuit against Bethel Park Police Department over its refusal to release audio of the 911 call Thomas Crooks’s father made the day his son allegedly tried assassinating Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Bethel Park has yet to respond to the lawsuit in court. After months of waiting, Judicial Watch filed a motion on Friday for a judge to intervene.
Specifically, Judicial Watch’s motion seeks an in camera review of the 911 call recording—meaning that the judge would review the recording himself in private to assess whether it should be released to the public.
“An in camera review is necessary for the Court to evaluate the content of the 911 recording and assess whether the public interest justifies its disclosure. Such a review allows the Court to examine the recording privately, ensuring that potentially sensitive information is not prematurely disclosed,” attorney J. Chadwick Schnee argued on behalf of Judicial Watch and Headline USA.
🚨NEW: @JudicialWatch moves for a judge to review the 911 call Thomas Crooks's father made to the police, and to determine whether the call should be made public.
Friday's motion comes months after Judicial Watch helped us file a lawsuit for the 911 call recording last October.… pic.twitter.com/5ia6jbTQqu— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) June 20, 2025
“Without an in camera review, the Court lacks the necessary information to balance the public interest in disclosure against any purported interest in nondisclosure,” Schnee said, adding that Bethel Park Police didn’t respond to his communications: “Counsel for Petitioners have contacted counsel for Respondent to see if they oppose this Motion, and Petitioners have not yet received an answer as to whether Respondent is opposed.”
Judicial Watch’s motion is the latest development in a nearly yearlong quest to unearth the Crooks 911 call.
This publication initially filed a request for the call last August, and Bethel Park Police denied disclosure nine days later—citing Section 708(b)(18) of the RTKL, which exempts 911 recordings from public disclosure. However, the exact same RTKL paragraph cited by Bethel Police also states that law enforcement can release 911 recordings that are in the public interest.
That’s where Judicial Watch came in. The non-profit watchdog agreed to take on this publication’s case, filing a lawsuit in late October in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas to force Bethel Park Police to disclose the 911 call.
Then, after the lawsuit was filed, Allegheny County—where Crooks lived with his parents, Matthew and Mary Crooks—released a partial recording of the call to ABC News.
The call lasts roughly 2 minutes before abruptly ending.
“Hi, yes. Uh, my name is Matthew Crooks. I was calling in regards to my son, Thomas. Uh, he belongs to the Clairton Sportsman Club in Clairton, and I don’t have the number for Jefferson Police on hand. The reason I’m calling is he left the house here at about a quarter to two this afternoon, and we’ve gotten no contact from him, no text messages, nothing’s been returned, and he’s not home yet,” Matthew said.
“That’s totally not like him. So we’re kind of worried, not really sure what we should do.”
The recording ended after Matthew confirmed his son was 20 years old.
Presumably, the recording ended because Allegheny County’s 911 dispatcher hung up after transferring the call to Bethel Park Police. Bethel Park has indeed confirmed that the recording it’s refusing to release is longer than the one from the Allegheny County dispatch.
On Monday, this writer discussed the matter with Judicial Watch’s Chris Farrell on his show, On Watch. Farrell compared Bethel Park’s stonewalling to when Fulton County DA Fani Willis ignored Judicial Watch’s request for records on her failed prosecution of Trump, which resulted in her office having to pay more than $54,000 in legal fees to the group.
“If these cops decide to not answer the [request], it probably will not go very well,” Farrell said.
Watch the full Judicial Watch show on the Trump assassination attempts here.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
