Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has accused the FBI and Department of Justice of covering up the online history of Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in July 2024. In a podcast episode released on Friday, Carlson alleged that current FBI Director Kash Patel, his predecessor Christopher Wray, and Deputy Director Dan Bongino are concealing key facts about Crooks' motivations and the security failures that allowed him to come within a quarter-inch of killing Trump.
Carlson claimed that his team obtained and authenticated copies of Crooks' social media accounts, revealing a detailed digital trail of violent threats, including calls for assassinations and political violence against prominent Democrats. According to Carlson, Crooks was initially a Trump supporter who called for dictatorship and expressed anti-Hispanic views, but radically turned against Trump during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Thomas Crooks came within a quarter inch of destroying this country, and yet, a year and a half later, we still know almost nothing about him or why he did it,” Carlson said. He argued that the FBI has hidden what it knows and suggested that the bureau had entered into contracts for mass social media data collection, yet failed to disclose Crooks' online activity.
Carlson also criticised the FBI for refusing to release footage of the gun range where Crooks practised, his autopsy report, and other evidence to Congress. He questioned why the FBI initially suggested Crooks had no digital footprint when it had hundreds of comments from his accounts.
The FBI responded via a new “Rapid Response” account on Thursday, stating: “This FBI has never said Thomas Crooks had no online footprint. Ever.” The bureau's pushback came amid ongoing tensions between Carlson and Trump-appointed leadership at the Justice Department.
