President Trump is calling for former FBI Director Christopher Wray to "pay a price" for what he calls a botched investigation into the 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, a case that, more than two years later, still has no clear motive and a growing list of unanswered questions.
Trump took to Truth Social to unload on his former appointee after newly released FBI documents surfaced as part of the Senate Judiciary Committee's ongoing inquiry into the July 13, 2024 shooting. The documents, Just The News reported, revealed that shooter Thomas Crooks "had been emotionless since birth and never had friends in middle or high school." His family told investigators his actions came as a complete surprise. His motive remains unknown.
Trump did not mince words. He alleged that the Biden-era FBI failed the investigation from the start, and that the damage was done long before he returned to office.
"Everybody knows the Crooked Joe Biden FBI didn't do what they should have with respect to the lunatic who shot me in Butler, PA. By the time I got into office, on January 20th, most of the information was missing, altered, corrupted, or gone."
He went further, calling the assassination attempt "a Democrat plot, to get me out of the election, that failed," and said Wray "should pay a price for the way he handled this assassination attempt, and certainly for the things he said."
The shooting at Trump's Butler rally left one bystander dead and Trump wounded. Thomas Crooks fired eight shots from a nearby rooftop before being neutralized, according to findings from a bipartisan House task force that National Review reported was formed to investigate the incident. The task force, led by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), found that Secret Service agents did not know Crooks was on the roof with a firearm until he opened fire, a significant communication breakdown.
That task force sent letters to the DOJ, DHS, FBI, and Secret Service requesting all documents related to the shooting. Its requests superseded those of other congressional committees.
But the passage of time has not brought clarity. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) put the problem plainly, as Breitbart reported:
"More than two years after the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the American people still know very little about Thomas Crooks, the almost-successful assassin."
Among the stranger details that have emerged: Crooks used the alias "Bob Dole" to receive packages, and an anonymous donor paid for his cremation shortly after the shooting. Neither detail has been publicly explained.
One of the sharpest criticisms of the FBI's handling of the case centers on what the bureau said, and didn't say, about Crooks' digital life. Under Wray's leadership, the FBI publicly characterized Crooks as having a thin or nonexistent online presence. That claim did not hold up.
A New York Post investigation found that a reporter, using only Crooks' phone number, was able to locate active accounts on YouTube, Snapchat, Venmo, Zelle, GroupMe, Discord, Google Play, Quizlet, Chess.com, and Quora. A YouTube account under the name "Tomcrooks2178" had been active from January 2019 until it was suspended the day after the Butler shooting.
The content of those posts raised even more serious questions. In December 2019, Crooks posted "MURDER THE DEMOCRATS." By August 2020, he had written about using "terrorism style attacks" to assassinate politicians, specifically describing plans to "sneak a bomb into an essential building" and "track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc." Other users flagged these posts and mentioned law enforcement in replies.
If a single reporter could find this material with a phone number, the question of why the FBI either missed it or chose not to disclose it is not rhetorical. It is the central unresolved question of the investigation.
The problems extended well beyond the digital investigation. Whistleblowers told Sen. Josh Hawley that the majority of security personnel at the Butler rally were not Secret Service agents at all. They were Homeland Security Investigations officers, people unfamiliar with standard protective protocols, as the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Hawley described the whistleblower allegations bluntly: the event was treated as a "loose" security event. Detection canines were not used in the usual manner. Unauthorized individuals gained backstage access to the rally.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, called the shooting "a total failure of the agency's core mission" and said it "demands congressional oversight." His committee subpoenaed then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. The House Judiciary Committee demanded answers from Wray.
The political backdrop makes the confrontation sharper. Trump himself appointed Wray in 2017 to replace James Comey as FBI Director. That appointment was supposed to reset the bureau after the turmoil of the Comey era. Instead, by the time Trump returned to office, he had concluded that Wray's FBI had failed him on the most personal investigation imaginable, the one into who tried to kill him and why.
Wray has since been replaced by Kash Patel as FBI Director. Trump's post suggests the change in leadership alone was not sufficient accountability.
Wray has not publicly responded to Trump's latest criticism. The specific statements by Wray that Trump referenced, "certainly for the things he said", were not detailed in the president's post or in available reporting.
The newly released FBI documents that prompted Trump's post are part of the Senate Judiciary Committee's ongoing inquiry. The specific contents beyond the details about Crooks' emotional history and his family's surprise have not been fully disclosed. Trump described the material as "new info" and asked why it "wasn't seen long ago."
That question, why it took more than two years for this information to surface, sits at the center of a larger pattern. Congress has conducted multiple investigations. A bipartisan task force produced findings. Whistleblowers came forward. Reporters found social media posts the FBI said did not exist. And still, no one can explain why Thomas Crooks climbed onto that roof in Butler, Pennsylvania.
When the people charged with protecting a president and investigating his near-murder cannot answer basic questions after two years, the demand for accountability is not political. It is the bare minimum a country should expect.
