(Ken Silva, Headline USA) FBI Director Kashyap Patel, Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and an unnamed senior official provided an interview to Fox News about the July 13, 2024, Trump assassination attempt—revealing new details about the case for the first time in over a year, but also spreading misinformation.
The interview was in direct response to journalists Tucker Carlson, Breanna Morello and Miranda Devine all publishing separate reports about a trove of internet data from the alleged would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks. Carlson revealed Crooks’s violent online rhetoric, Morello published screenshots of his comments and some posts he purportedly made on DeviantArt, and Devine reported that Crooks used an online alias “Rod Swanson,” which is the same name as a former FBI agent who investigated the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting.
One of the biggest revelations from the trio of reports was from Carlson, who said Crooks discussed terrorism tactics with an account called @Willy_Tepes, which is linked to a Norwegian named Bjørn Leif Hjelmerud, a member of the neo-Nazi group Nordic Resistance Movement—a group classified as a terrorism organization by the State Department in June 2024.
Responding to that bombshell, the FBI told Fox News that Crooks never actually talked to the @Willy_Tepes account.
“Crooks posted on YouTube. Tepes is a Norwegian, Nordic resistance member. He simply responded to content Crooks posted,” Patel reportedly said, referencing a comment Tepes made on a 2020-era video posted on the video-sharing platform by Crooks.
However, Patel’s comment was false. Morello, Devine and Carlson all published screenshots of Crooks tagging @Willy_Tepes in his comments.
The FBI claims Thomas Crooks never tagged or replied to Willy Tepes. That’s a lie.
This screenshot from @mirandadevine’s reporting shows Crooks replying to and tagging him.
Does @FBIDirectorKash’s FBI care about truth for @POTUS Trump? pic.twitter.com/hdthWoTWyX
— Joseph D. McBride, Esq. (@McBrideLawNYC) November 22, 2025
“The FBI claims Thomas Crooks never tagged or replied to Willy Tepes. That’s a lie. This screenshot from [Devine’s] reporting shows Crooks replying to and tagging him,” attorney Joseph McBride noted.
The significance of Crooks’s comments to @Willy_Tepes is that because of their violent nature—at one point, Crooks called for bombing federal buildings—they indicate that he should have been on law enforcement’s radar, according to former FBI assistant director Chris Swecker.
“It’s clear that he was popping off on the social media sites and saying things that should have garnered attention,” Swecker told the New York Post.
The FBI’s comments to Fox News about Crooks’s online comments weren’t the only misinformation. The unnamed official also said that “every single round was accounted for.” In fact, the House Task Force that investigated the assassination attempt found that one of the rounds allegedly fired by Crooks was never recovered.
More misinformation from Kashyap and co's interview with Fox News about Thomas Crooks. They said "every single round was accounted for."
But according to the House Task Force report, one of the rounds was never recovered. https://t.co/fQZxI0kIvL pic.twitter.com/GFQGBoRMiD— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 24, 2025
Director Patel also made dubious claims about providing all the FBI’s evidence to Congress about the incident.
“Congress is accusing us of not turning over all of this stuff — but all of this stuff doesn’t exist. It is an empty narrative they’re firing into a vacuum,” Patel reportedly said. “The very limited information we have not turned over is respective to victims rights. There isn’t some trove of documents that we haven’t sent over there.”
The FBI further told Fox News that it provided Congress with nearly 3,000 pages of records, including FBI interview reports with Secret Service, state and local police, and state trooper. The FBI has also claimed to have provided local lab reports including ballistics, crime scene photos, videos “and more,” Fox reported.
Multiple members of Congress, including former House Task Force chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., who represents the Butler area, have said that the FBI is stonewalling them. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., issued a subpoena for FBI records in July, but hasn’t indicated whether the bureau complied.
Meanwhile, the FBI denied Headline USA’s Freedom of Information Act request for records on the assassination attempt on the grounds that its investigation is still open, even though Patel has said it’s closed. Fox News reported that the case currently sits in a “pending, inactive” status.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
