Newly Released FBI Records Reveal Altercation Involving Attempted Trump Assassin at Butler Rally

Newly released FBI documents show that attempted assassin Thomas Crooks got into an altercation with a group of people at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally site before he opened fire on President Trump on July 13, 2024.The 27 pages of heavily redacted information were released Friday after the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a freedom of information lawsuit against the law enforcement agency over records related to the assassination attempt.Several of the newly released pages from a July 17 investigative report detail interviews witnesses gave to agents about the shooting.One woman told authorities that Crooks was involved in an altercation with a group of people near the building he then climbed to fire shots at the president. She also says she observed Crooks climbing up the AGR building after the interaction.Another witness said he saw the altercation and made direct eye contact with Crooks. The man said that Crooks was making “hateful” comments toward Mr. Trump before the shooting.The witness told agents that approximately four minutes after Mr. Trump came out to speak, he saw Crooks on the roof top of the AGR building. Crooks was on his back and facing away from the stage. He said that Crooks then repositioned himself on his stomach and began firing several rounds toward the stage area from a rifle. One shot hit Mr. Trump in the ear before a law enforcement agent fired a shot that killed Crooks.A witness also told the FBI that a female deputy did drive by the area during the altercation and had an interaction with an individual outside of the fenced-in area at the site. That person was not believed to be Crooks. Another part of the investigative report includes an interview with that deputy.The Butler Sheriff’s Office deputy, whose name is redacted, told investigators she was assigned to the rally two days before the event and was provided a map of the rally grounds one day prior to the event. She said she was not given any further briefings on the event and had no interaction with the Secret Service.The deputy says she was stationed near the AGR building and was told to watch the area around the fences. Her location did not give her a view of the roofline of the building.She said she did not expect there to be any people in that area but about 100 people had gathered near the fence. She reported that she and a Pennsylvania State Police trooper had to address a few problems “a few hours” before Mr. Trump’s arrival. Those problems were not detailed in the report.“It should not have taken two years and a federal lawsuit to find out that the Butler shooter was involved in an altercation with Trump supporters and made hateful comments towards Trump at the Butler rally minutes before he nearly killed Trump,” the Judicial Watch president, Tom Fitton, said in a release. “These new FBI documents are disturbing and astonishing, detailing more conduct by the shooter that should have gotten the attention of Secret Service.” The Secret Service had been heavily criticized for its security plan at the Butler rally. A Senate Judiciary Committee report called the shooting preventable and said the Secret Service failed to share threat information ahead of the event.Among the findings in the report was that Secret Service officials received classified intelligence regarding a threat to Mr. Trump’s life 10 days before the rally, but failed to relay the information to federal and local law enforcement personnel responsible for securing and staffing the event.The report further exposed a “litany” of procedural and planning errors, including misallocation of resources, lack of training, and pervasive communication failures at the site.

Newly Released FBI Records Reveal Altercation Involving Attempted Trump Assassin at Butler Rally

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