Judicial Watch has obtained 249 pages of FBI records connected to Thomas Crooks, the gunman who opened fire at President Donald Trump’s July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The newly described records include a heavily redacted chat thread, drone photos taken in the Pittsburgh area, and communications involving shipments from Hong Kong.
Crooks climbed onto the roof of the AGR building, took aim at Trump from an elevated position, and fired his weapon. Trump was shot in the ear. Firefighter Corey Comperatore was fatally shot, and a countersniper killed Crooks.
One of the most unusual disclosures involves an FBI electronic communication dated July 19, 2024. The document concerns a phone conversation described as a “chat thread” between Crooks and an unidentified recipient whose name is redacted. The conversation took place between May 21, 2023, and January 3, 2024.
The outgoing messages were largely one- and two-word messages or strings of characters. The records list them as follows:
Hello Hello red Hello red Hdudhdbdbbd 7888ejdj Yolo Ddodjjf 890 Hdjd Djdj red Yup red Hello Jhhhuuh Hhdj Jjjjjjjjjjjj Hello red Red red …
The incoming messages are completely redacted from the released text chain. That leaves the public with only Crooks’ side of the exchange and no identified recipient.
A separate report titled “Samsung Messaging Review,” dated July 18, 2024, details other communications on Crooks’ phone that FBI agents considered “pertinent” to the investigation. The review identified a conversation with an unknown contact from February 8 through February 10, 2023. It also listed conversations with redacted contacts from January 9 through January 16, 2023, and from December 12 through December 26, 2022.
The same FBI review noted campaign solicitations from then-U.S. Senate candidate Raphael Warnock. It also identified DHL shipment notifications connected to a package delivery from Hong Kong.
Judicial Watch also obtained drone photos of an arena in the Pittsburgh area. The images were reportedly taken a few months before Crooks nearly assassinated Trump. Tom Fitton shared the material on X.
More than two years after the Butler attack, the FBI is still withholding records from the public, according to the report. Last month, Trump said that by the time he entered office in January 2025, records related to Crooks were missing, altered, or corrupted.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton criticized the continued release of partial, redacted records.
“These latest records reveal more pieces of the puzzle surrounding Thomas Crooks,” Fitton said. “The FBI should stop the slow drip of heavily redacted records and immediately provide the full investigative record.”
Fitton made the appeal following the death of James Copenhaver, who was severely injured after being shot during the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump.
The report also says an anonymous donor paid to cremate Crooks, who was 20 years old, just ten days after the July 13 assassination attempt.
The latest records add more fragments to the Crooks investigation, including a mysterious redacted conversation, drone images, campaign messages, and Hong Kong shipping notifications. But with names and incoming messages still concealed, major portions of the investigative record remain unavailable to the public.
NEW: Thomas Crooks used drone to take pictures of Pittsburgh area a few months before he nearly assassinated @realDonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/2wlZfbeXJ3
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) October 2, 2026