(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Thomas Crooks was seen at a “peaceful democratic political event” on July 11, 2024, just two days before allegedly trying to assassinate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to newly released FBI records.
The records about Crooks and the political rally were included in a batch of 255 pages, which were released by the FBI on Tuesday in response to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the transparency group Judicial Watch.
An FBI interview report dated July 17, 2024, says that a teenager saw Crooks in a parking lot, pulling signs out of a vehicle at the July 11 event. The teen’s name is redacted.
“[REDACTED] was not positive on the wording of the signs, but believed the topic was ‘Keep Trump Out of Office. Crooks did not say anything to [REDACTED] [REDACTED] did not say anything to Crooks,” the FBI memo says.
“[REDACTED] told us an unknown male with Crooks made some verbal reference to ‘Commies’ while sitting in a truck near [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] took the word ‘Commies to believe that the male was talking about communists.”
🚨I glossed over perhaps the most significant record the first time reading this new batch.
According to this record, Crooks was seen at a political event on July 11–2 days before Butler–with an "unknown male" who was talking about "commies."
🧵 https://t.co/58zZ2Esy0l pic.twitter.com/ut2LHl8gc1— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 13, 2026
The teenager told the FBI that he didn’t know the person he saw was Crooks until after his picture was plastered all over the news in the wake of the Butler shooting. However, the FBI interviewed another person who also saw Crooks at the same July 11 event, and that person knew Crooks from high school.
The person who knew Crooks from high school, whose name is also redacted, told the FBI that he saw him while “working the event” on July 11. He said he was taking the trash out when he encountered Crooks in the parking lot.
“[REDACTED] observed Crooks and new him from high school. [REDACTED] interacted with Crooks and described his demeanor as energetic and excited when seeing [REDACTED],” the FBI memo says.
“[REDACTED] did not recognize anyone else from the event, he also did not know the reason for the event or overhear any talk of people attending the event.”
Along with interviewing the teenager and the person who knew Crooks in high school, the records say that the FBI also interviewed a third individual who confirmed that a “peaceful democratic political event” was indeed held on July 11, 2024. No further details of that interview are available in the latest batch of records.
The sighting of Crooks at a political event wasn’t the only new information included in the latest records release. Another FBI memo shows that Crooks interacted with someone on July 12 at the Clairton Sportsmen Club, where he trained at the rifle range the day before the assassination attempt.
According to that memo, the interaction between Crooks and the other person at the rifle range was innocuous. “[REDACTED] described the talk as just ‘small talk’ and they did not speak about anything specific,” the memo says.
Another interesting record from the latest batch shows that Crooks interacted with someone at the gun range the day before the Butler shooting.
The mystery person apparently had license plates that were of interest to the gun range manager. pic.twitter.com/GukSS0GdmH— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 11, 2026
Other FBI records from the latest batch provide more details about Crooks’s May 2024 hospitalization, which Headline USA first reported in February.
According to the new records, a neighbor saw an ambulance outside of Crooks’s house late one night. Crooks left in the ambulance, and his room light was off for the next two weeks—leaving the neighbor to believe that he was gone for that long. When Crooks returned, he told the neighbor that he went to the hospital for dehydration.
Additionally, another record—seemingly an interview with Crooks’s father, Matthew Crooks—says that Thomas 3D printed Glock frames. It’s been public for years that Crooks had a 3D printer, but the new batch of FBI records was the first time it’s been revealed that he used the printer to create firearms parts.
Yet another juicy record says Thomas 3D-printed firearms parts. pic.twitter.com/E3EqSUuyI7
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 11, 2026
At 255 pages, the latest batch of records—the seventh production—is the biggest batch to date. So far, the FBI has released about 500 pages in total. However, the bureau has admitted that it holds roughly 75,000 pages of records on Crooks.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
