Brace yourself for a chilling revelation that shatters the official narrative about the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
The Daily Mail reported that Tucker Carlson’s latest mini-documentary exposes a disturbing history of online threats by Thomas Crooks, challenging the FBI’s portrayal of the would-be assassin and raising serious questions about what law enforcement knew—or ignored—before the tragic event.
Long before the shocking attempt on Trump’s life, Crooks, then just a teenager, was leaving a digital trail of violent rhetoric on YouTube between 2019 and 2020.
At ages 15 to 17, Crooks posted hundreds of public comments—737 to be exact—calling for political violence and even assassination, according to Carlson’s investigation based on a tip from an anonymous source.
Initially a vocal Trump supporter, Crooks’ views took a sharp turn during the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting toward radical left ideologies while still espousing dangerous ideas about guerrilla warfare and targeting government figures.
These posts, now vanished from mainstream platforms but partially preserved on internet archives, paint a picture of a deeply unsettled young man whose online presence mysteriously disappeared after an exchange with a shadowy figure known as Willy_Tepes.
This Willy_Tepes, linked to a Swedish far-right group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, reportedly pressured Crooks to embrace violence, per Carlson’s findings.
Shortly after their interaction in August 2020, Crooks’ digital footprint went dark—until, of course, he resurfaced with deadly intent at the Butler rally years later.
As Carlson pointedly asks, “Is Willy Tepes linked to any violent organizations? If so, at the time of the shooting, did the FBI have assets inside these organizations?”
Carlson’s documentary disputes the FBI’s depiction of Crooks as consistently far-right, highlighting a clear ideological pivot that federal investigators seem to have downplayed or missed entirely.
Even more damning, a source familiar with the probe told CNN that authorities were examining a YouTube account tied to Crooks with themes of political violence—yet FBI testimony before Congress omitted any mention of his evolving beliefs.
One can’t help but wonder if this selective framing was a convenient way to avoid tougher questions about monitoring online extremism across the political spectrum.
A never-before-seen clip from Crooks’ Google Drive, unearthed by Carlson’s team, shows him dry-firing a handgun in his Bethel Park bedroom, a haunting preview of his later actions.
Then there’s the odd aftermath: an FBI agent was photographed hosing down the site where Crooks was killed by Secret Service agents, a move high-level officials called “very strange” since crime scene cleanup is typically outsourced.
Add to that the FBI’s refusal to release surveillance footage from locations like the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, where Crooks trained, and it’s no surprise that trust in the agency’s handling of this case is wearing thin.
On the day of the attack, Crooks conducted drone surveillance at the rally site for 11 minutes while the Secret Service’s anti-drone system was inexplicably down, and local police identified him as suspicious but lost track of him.
He scaled a building outside the security perimeter—the only one without video surveillance—and despite being spotted by officers, no decisive action was taken before shots rang out.
With no manifesto left behind, Crooks’ true motives remain elusive, leaving law enforcement, friends, and even Congressional sources frustrated as social media accounts tied to him were wiped clean within a day of the incident.
