The six shocking questions that remain about the Trump assassination attempt in Butler one year later
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, which left Trump with a bloody ear, two men with life-altering injuries and the death of father and firefighter Corey Comperatore, investigations began into how such a deadly lapse could've occurred.
The House of Representatives launched a task force to probe the shooting, but their report published late last year did not focus at all on Crooks or his motive, instead it highlighted the failures of the Secret Service which led to the disaster.
The FBI similarly began a probe, but the agency has yet to deliver a public update on the case. The last press FBI press release on the matter came last August, nearly 11 months ago.
On year on, America is still in the dark and left to wonder how such a brazen attack was so nearly able to kill the most identifiable U.S. politician.
Here the Daily Mail breaks down the top questions that remain about Trump's Butler shooting.
What was Thomas Matthew Crooks' motive?
The FBI has still to determine why 20-year-old Crooks, a young man from the Pittsburgh suburbs decided to shoot the Republican.
'The FBI has not identified a motive for the shooter's actions, but we are working to determine the sequence of events and the shooter's movements prior to the shooting, collecting and reviewing evidence, conducting interviews, and following up on all leads,' the agency wrote in a press release on July 14, 2024.
Since then, there has been no public update about Crooks' motive.
When pressed on how little is known about the shooter during a May interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, FBI Director Kash Patel poured cold water on the host's question.
'I don't know that there's more to know, but you're going to know everything we know,' he responded, downplaying the existence of additional information on Crooks and his motivation.
'We take assassination attempts, especially of the president of the United States, extremely seriously,' Patel said in the interview. 'And we don't feel that the American people have been given the information they need on that. And we're digging through the files, and we're getting them a more robust picture of what happened and whether or not there were any connections.'
Lawmakers have been irked by the lack of new information, too.
'I'm mostly unsatisfied,' Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview. 'Motive is just one part of the many questions I think that we still have.'
Crooks did not leave behind notes or social media posts explaining his decision to shoot at the president and rally attendees.
Did Crooks have a handler or accomplice?
Authorities have yet to state publicly whether they have determined if Crooks had any co-conspirators.
'While the investigation to date indicates the shooter acted alone, the FBI continues to conduct logical investigative activity to determine if there were any co-conspirators associated with this attack,' the FBI's July 14 release stated.
Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who oversees the House's Task Force on Declassification of Government Secrets, wrote this week she still wonders who Crooks was talking to at the time of the shooting.
'Our president was nearly assassinated. We still don't know what happened to the shooter's burner phones. Who was he corresponding with? Did he have a handler?' she posted on X.
'After investigating the corrupt handling of the JFK assassination with my Task Force, there are far too many questions that still need answers about Trump's assassination attempt.'
What was Crooks's mental condition at the time?
Reports indicate that the 20-year-old's parents, Matthew and Mary Crooks, are licensed professional counselors.
Just before the shooting occurred on July 13, the parents reportedly called authorities worrying about the whereabouts of their son.
In their call they expressed concern about their son's wellbeing, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News in the days after the assassination attempt.
In the year before Crooks shot Trump, his father noticed his son exhibiting strange behaviors, like talking to himself while waving his arms and dancing late into the evening, the New York Times reported.
His father noted that mental health issues run in the family, and before the shooting Crooks had searched 'major depressive disorder' and 'depression crisis' online.
Matthew and Mary Crooks have not spoken publicly about their son and what led to his decision to open fire.
What was found on Crooks's phones?
The FBI discovered the gunman had two phones at the time of the shooting, but exactly what is on those devices remains a mystery.
In the days following the Butler shooting FBI agents briefed members of Congress on some of the contents of the devices.
Federal agents found searches of President Donald Trump, former President Joe Biden and more on the shooter's devices.
Reports indicate Crooks also looked up former FBI Director Chritopher Wray, information on the Republican and Democratic national conventions and the Oxford High School shooting, including a photograph of the shooter Ethan Crumbley on his phone.
What happened to Crooks's body?
A member of the House task force to investigate the Butler shooting, Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., a former sheriff, expressed dismay at how quickly the shooter's body was cremated.
Some of his biggest concerns have centered on Crooks' autopsy and the swift release of his body to the family for cremation - just 10 days after he was shot dead by snipers.
Kelly's report noted that the postmortem came up negative in tests for alcohol, illegal drugs and other controlled substances.
But Higgins says he still wants to know why tests weren't carried out to test for prescription drugs in Crooks's system.
'It's reasonable to suspect some kind of psychotic break. There are many longstanding studies worldwide that connect the dots between antidepressants and anti-psychotic drugs and bizarre behaviors that develop after someone has started ingesting these drugs,' he told the Daily Mail earlier this year.
'My effort to examine Crooks' body on Monday, August 5, caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact… the FBI released the body for cremation 10 days after J13,' Higgins's independent report reveals. 'On J23, Crooks was gone. Nobody knew this until Monday, August 5, including the County Coroner, law enforcement, Sheriff, etc.'
Why are federal agencies stonewalling?
The last update from the FBI on the investigation into Crooks was on August, 28, 2024, according to records on their website's press release portal.
The FBI did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for an update on the case.
Speaking to Fox News earlier this year in a joint interview FBI Director Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino shared that there are four cases related to the Butler attack, noting that two of them are closed due to the individuals being deceased.
'Two of the investigations are obviously closed because the individuals are dead, but there's two live prosecutions,' Patel said. 'And so the we can't get ahead of the federal court case.'
'A lot of that information will come out in the federal court cases, but we have personally invested our time in making sure that we have looked at all the any possible international connections to terrorism and adversaries alike.'
'And we've both been down to Quantico. We've both done the laboratory testing, we've both seen the explosives analysis, we've both seen the firearm physically held, and we are all in on these investigations,' the FBI director shared.
In the interview Bongino also doused hopes for an explosive development in the cases.
'I'm not going to tell people what they want to hear. I'm going to tell you the truth. And whether you, whether you like it or not, is up to you. If there was a big explosive there, there, right? Given my history as a secret service agent and my personal friendship as a director does with the President, give me one logical, sensible reason we would not have,' he disclosed.
'If you can think of one there, isn't there, isn't there in some of these cases, that there you're looking for is not there.'
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